People Error
by Kare Uta
Summary: Sequel to Cats and Dogs Two years in Kai and Tori's relationship, the whole team are almost sure that the magnet that brought the two together is gone.When some problems arise, they wonder if their love would come back...or if it had gone anywhere at all.
1. Introduction

_**People Error**_

_**Summary: **_Sequel to Cats and Dogs. Two years into Kai and Tori's relationship and the whole team are almost sure that the magnet that brought the two together is gone by the way the two are arguing again. When complications arise again the team are eager to see if things will get better.

_**Chapter 1**_

"Don't be so lazy, you haven't even been going for that long." Tori yelled at the team, watching them from on the beach wall as they ran laps. It was getting late although that wasn't a good excuse for slowing down. Now that Tori had her health back she'd gone back to training the team and was more energetic than ever. She hardly ever did her own exercise with the team but that didn't mean she wasn't energetic. She got a little angry, watching everyone slowing down a lot more, "Just five more." She told them.

"You're…trying…to kill us?" Tyson asked breathlessly.

"Too easy of a question." Tori mumbled to herself. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kai stop, grabbing at the wall as his other hand was on his knee, breathing heavily until he collapsed sideways against the wall. Carelessly she slid off the wall and walked up to him, "Why'd you stop?" she asked in a wondering tone.

"This is going to be the end of me." Kai mumbled bitterly, pressing his fingers down hard on the right side of his stomach.

Tori gave him a light pat on the back, not much pity in her actions or in her words, "Run it off, five more laps." She watched him leave, then went back to sitting on the wall like nothing had happened. One their five laps where all done she watched them all collapse on the ground with exhaustion and she laughed at it, walking over to them and joining them on the ground. "That was a good days work." She said in a happier tone.

"So now explain to us how we're getting home." Max said, lying on his stomach on the sand.

"You're going to walk."

"How?" Ray mumbled.

"I think my legs are asleep." Tyson complained, attempting sitting up.

Tori laughed, also rolling her eyes, "Yet somehow life goes on." She joked, giving him a light punch in the shoulder. She lay back onto the soft sand, staring up at the darkening sky, "We've got a while before we should get home." She turned her head to the side to look at Kai, he was sitting up in the front, staring out at the waves of the dark water, "Hey Kai," she called him, getting a blank look from him, "You alright?" she asked him softly. He nodded but that was it and he went to look out at the waves again. She got up slowly, then kneeling down in front of him, "Sorry but I don't believe you." She murmured, placing a hand to his forehead, "The fever's back. Go home."

Kai naturally shook his head, refusing, "I'm fine. It's not even that bad."

Tori stood up, "I mean it Kai, go home." She ordered him angrily. Kai scowled quietly, standing up, glaring at her coldly and then walking off, obviously frustrated but Tori couldn't blame him much. "Stubborn." She growled, sitting back down with the others.

"Another fever?" Ray asked her, sitting up across from her.

"Yeah…he's been getting them quite a lot lately." Tori replied with an exhale. "Obviously he's too stubborn to go to a doctor about it. Ever since he'd got everything back to normal he's trying to avoid doctors the best he can."

"Then again, maybe we could get the doctor the Dojo tomorrow before training. Maybe he wouldn't be so uncomfortable." Max tried.

Tori shook her head sadly, "The guy will just get pissed off. In my opinion we should just leave him do what he likes for now, then if things get worse we'll do something about it. Till then just leave him alone."

"I hope you're right about this." Tyson said, sitting up.

Tori smirked a bit, standing up, "I was right two years ago and I'm right now too." She assured him in a playful tone. "I'm also right when I say you should get home soon because tomorrow training will be tough."

"One hellish training after another? That's not fair, Tori." Max said, hauling himself off the ground.

The girl wrapped her arms around his waist, "I know but you've got a tournament in a few months and I need to keep all of you in shape."

"You're assuming we're going to make it to the tournament." Ray quipped.

Tyson got up like all the others had, leaning against Ray as he'd spoken, "Yeah, your work out might kill us before we get to even meet the competition!"

"You're all just lazy." Tori said, "Anyway, I'm off and I'll see you tomorrow morning." She waved, walking backwards before turning and running off back home to meet Kai. In a short amount of time she'd arrived back to the old apartment she still lived in with Kai. She stepped inside and looked around from the corridor, walking to Kai's bedroom and walking inside, sitting down beside him on the bed. "Grumpy, you okay?" she asked him. He'd been sleeping on his side, always had for the past few months since the fevers had started bothering him so right now his back was now towards her with the covers all the way up his shoulder.

He turned over, looking up at her and wiping at his eyes, "I'm alright." He mumbled angrily.

Tori slid off the bed and walked to the bathroom, coming back with the thermometer. She put it in his mouth hurriedly, then sat back down on the bed abruptly, "I didn't mean to be so rough on you during training today, I hope I didn't hurt you." She pulled the thermometer out of his mouth, "39.5°C." she told him.

"I'm feeling better though." Kai whispered hoarsely.

The girl shrugged a little, thinking for only a moment, "Maybe the fever was worse before." Kai groaned quietly, sighing with frustration after just before pulling the covers over his head. The girl sat on the ground and peered under the covers, "Yeah suffocate yourself why don't you?" she shook her head and turned down the covers again, "Did you have dinner?"

"Do you think I had time?" Kai asked rhetorically.

"Fine, what should I make?"

"Ah nothing for me, not up to it. Maybe in the morning."

Tori sighed, obviously with disagreement but she'd learnt not to argue, "Alright." She walked out quietly, leaving him alone to get some rest.

That left Kai with his own thoughts, which really wasn't very much considering he just wanted to sleep soundly till the next morning. It probably wasn't an option though. Very rarely could he sleep soundly with a fever and when he could it usually meant he'd be waking up early in the morning left with nothing to do but train. And obviously, Tori disagreed to him training aside from when they trained as a team. It had been almost two years since they'd met, just under two years that they'd been as a couple and not all that much had changed aside from Tori's attitude towards him when it came to training. It was all understandable to him. He was the one that had asked her to be so tough on him when they trained.

When he'd began working so hard to turn his whole life around it made him feel like he was going soft and he didn't like the idea of that at all. So he asked the girl to act a little more assertive and not to treat him any differently just because he got hurt once in a while. He wanted to be treated like he had to surpass the pain and continue. He wanted to be pushed, otherwise he'd just think he was slacking and that was the last thing he had wanted for himself.

It clearly made Tori uncomfortable having to treat him that way. She was a gentle and caring soul, very argumentative when it came to games and sports and such but she was always caring no matter what so he knew she didn't like the idea of having to treat him that way but she did it anyway, regardless of the pain she felt and not once did she argue with him that she didn't want to be that way anymore. As long as it added to his self-worth then it made her happy enough.

Still things had gotten better for the two over the bit of time they knew each other after their own events. Tori was amazingly healthy again and was able to do just about everything without feeling overly exhausted and pained as she used to. A lot of things for Kai had gotten better, there was a great improvement at least. He was able to get long hours of sleep, all nightmare free. His eating had gotten a lot better too, at least when he went to dinner with the team he was at least able to order something and eat a decent amount. It wasn't as much as he should be eating but it was a healthy amount at least which kept him out of hospitals. He had the rare panic attack once in a while but that was just about it, everything else was clear sailing.

That was up until the fevers started up a few months ago and an aching pain in his side had settled. The pain was terrible. To the point that many times he'd have to stop training just because of it. He pushed himself to continue but still, sometimes even he couldn't help wanting to go sit back down on a sofa and relax for a few minutes. He always saw it in Tori's dark brown eyes that she just wished he'd stopped pushing himself and calm down but he wouldn't do that.

His mind had been wandering so much lately. One moment he thought that he didn't have the strength to think about things and suddenly his mind just started calculating old thoughts. Some good and some bad. He was close to sleeping, just up until he felt a skinny form creeping into the space beside him in the bed. The girl pulled his arm to wrap around her as she nestled into his side and pulled the blankets tighter over the both of them. "What is it?" he asked her in a whisper.

Tori nestled a little closer, yawning quietly before answering, "I want a cuddle." She pouted softly.

Kai laughed quietly at that, tightening the arm that she'd made him snake around her, then giving the top of her head a light kiss before resting back comfortably into the pillows. "Night." He whispered.

Tori smiled at that, tightening an arm around his waist, "Night night." She spoke in a childish tone.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Being so close to him she noticed something. "Kai…you're…"_

"_Burning up?" Kai interrupted. He nodded, "Yeah I know." He answered himself._

_Tori got off the bed and walked into the bathroom. Rinsing a cloth with cold water, she was about to walk back out of the bathroom but her eyes caught on the small red stains that covered the white tiled walls by the door. She shut her eyes, a quiet sigh escaping her before she walked back to Kai. She sat by him again and dabbed the cool cloth against his forehead despite that he'd constantly flinch and move away. After a few minutes of that she stared down at Kai's hands, her fingers finding their way through his gloved ones, feeling his hands shake slightly beneath hers. "You hurt yourself?" Tori asked quietly, careful on the subject._

"_Drop it." Kai whispered in a warning tone._

"_Just tell me." Tori encouraged._

_**---End Flashback---**_

That memory reflected in his mind almost every night. Or at least every night that he went to bed with a fever. It was one of the first times that she'd cared for him so well, it was also one of those times that her encouragement almost brought him to talk to her about everything. He never had though. She still didn't know everything about his past. Actually, she hardly knew anything about his past but she was okay with that fact and he loved that about her. He turned over onto his side, the side he shouldn't be lying on if he wanted to spare himself some pain.

He pulled both arms around her and closed his eyes, smiling a little lightly when she moved closer. He gave her another kiss on the cheek and relaxed again, then attempting a calm sleep for a few hours.

_**---Next Morning---**_

"Morning sunshine." Tori greeted cheerily, setting down breakfast at table.

"Stop calling me sunshine." Kai said through gritted teeth.

Tori smirked, "Well that answers my question…two coffees this morning." Therefore putting down a mug of coffee and boiling more water.

"This is amazing." Kai argued quietly with her, "I spend my whole childhood with no fevers or colds whatsoever and suddenly in the course of three or four years I make up for my childhood immunities." Sipping his coffee once finishing off his argumentative statement.

"I'm going to tell you the same thing I told you yesterday…" Tori set a second mug off coffee down on the table, then leaning forward against it, "Go to a doctor!" she ordered, pushing herself away and sitting up onto the counter. "I don't know why you're so stubborn about it. They're just going to tell you what's wrong and why you're getting the fevers and what you could do to fix it. They aren't going to kill you."

"It's funny how in two years you haven't got it into your thick brain that I just hate doctors. Really, its any wonder how I get along with your parents."

Tori set down a plate of toast onto the kitchen table in front of Kai, then went back to the counter, "I think its because my dad's been in your position before so he sticks up for you when my mom and I worry as though you were our child."

Kai had begun eating, having took in what she'd said, "Yeah…" he started just before swallowing, "I still find it hard to believe that your parents where like us…total opposites and one more problematic then the other."

"Trust me I was just as surprised as you were." Tori agreed, "Imagine…my dad was always having problems, then my mom shows up and suddenly to him life is all better. Its not exactly the same case with us but the opposites part, my dad's resistance and my mom's consideration for people does fit us pretty perfectly."

"When they explained I had understood why your dad told me you got it all from your mother."

Tori laughed at that, sliding off the counter again, "I suppose I'm a lot more like her than I'd originally thought." She said in cheerful tone, "I'm feeling tired…mind if I go lie down a bit?" she asked.

"Go ahead."

Tori nodded in some thanks, "I've postponed training for a few hours so take your time getting ready to go." She left the room with her words, leaving Kai alone to finish off his breakfast and then to go get ready. It hadn't actually taken him long to finish all the things he had to do though. Breakfast was something he'd gotten used to having so it wasn't much of a struggle anymore and he finished that in only a couple of minutes, leaving few things for Tori to clean up later. Having a shower and changing never gave him any trouble and he was never one to take long doing any of that stuff anyway, unlike Tori, who ever since her surgery, had been known for taking long to get dressed as now she seemed to have been one who enjoyed making herself look good. Rather than not caring at all like she used to when he first met her.

He entered the living room where he was sure that Tori was. She was lying on her stomach on the sofa, flicking through pages of a magazine. He spoke to her quietly but upon walking up to her he'd realized she had her headphones on and couldn't hear him so he gave her a light tap on the shoulder to get her attention. She smiled up at him and turned over onto her back, "Hey there, all done?" she asked, pulling off her headphones and tossing them onto the coffee table.

"Yeah. Why are you so tired?" Kai sat down at the edge of the sofa just beside her.

"Not too sure, I slept fine last night though."

The Russian thought for just a moment, "Cancel training today." He said suddenly. The girl looked at him strangely, a look on her face reading something like 'What on earth are you talking about this time?' and he smirked at the confusion, "You're tired, I'm sore, you're working this afternoon anyway so might as well cancel it."

"So what do we do all morning?" Tori asked boringly.

Kai paused, clearly not having thought the thing all the way through, "I don't know. Do what you like. All I know is I'm in desperate need for a few more hours sleep."

Tori rolled her beautiful brown eyes, sighing a bit, "Fine, go get some sleep."

The male smiled lightly, "Thanks." He whispered softly.

"Yeah yeah, I'm only letting this go because I can't be bothered to get up and go out." Tori turned back over onto her stomach, going back to reading the magazine up until she felt fingers massaging the small of her back, "Stop that." She laughed, more when he tickled the sides of her stomach. She turned over so he couldn't get to her, shaking her head, "Keep your hands to yourself." She joked.

"And you say _I'm_ grumpy." Kai smirked as he stood up, he reached forward, gave her a quick kiss on the lips and turned to the door to leave.

"Kai…" Tori whispered in an affectionate tone.

Kai softened up a little at the sound of her sweet voice again and turned, "Yeah?"

Tori smiled brightly, "You _are_ grumpy." She said with a sweet laugh.

The older blader exhaled and rolled his eyes at the sound of her childish comment and laugh, "What a comedian." He said sarcastically, smirking. "So I'm grumpy, but you're a close second." He added before leaving the room.

"I already knew that!" Tori exclaimed after him, giggling as she tugged on the headphones again, "As if he doesn't already know that I'm second to him at being grumpy." She mumbled, still with a smile. She squeiled quietly as something hit her and she looked up with a pout at the person that threw the object at her.

"So hopefully you'd shut up." Kai answered simply, then leaving again.

The girl looked down at the object, still pouting, finding a chocolate bar had been thrown at her. She looked a little confused naturally since last that the team was over Max and Tyson had licked up every last speck of sugar the house contained. With that in mind she got off the sofa and walked down the hall to the bedroom. Running and jumping onto the bed, startling a relaxed Kai, "I thought all the chocolate was gone!" she exclaimed.

"It was…but I bought some more when I went to buy coffee." Kai replied, sitting back up slightly on his elbows.

Tori turned bug eyed, gaping slightly, "So there's more where this came from?!" she asked, a tint of happiness in her voice.

"Yeah but you're not getting to it." Kai teased, lying back down.

The girl pouted a bit, "But…but why?" she sniffled only half-jokingly.

"Because I don't want to deal with you when you're hyper." Kai pulled the covers over himself and lay down comfortably, hoping to avoid the teasing that was definitely coming thanks to his comments.

She unwrapped the chocolate and broke off two small pieces, mumbling something at the same time that was like, "I don't get hyper that much." She passed him a piece which he graciously took, his rare taste of chocolate while she curled up beside him, "So what's sweeter…chocolate or me?" she asked cutely. He avoided the question though, just staring off to one side of the room, "I asked you a question." She said as she prodded him in the stomach.

"Ah…chocolate. Definitely chocolate." Kai replied with a nod.

Tori sat up on her side, then tilting Kai's head to her side and gave him a long sweet kiss on his lips that burned both their cheeks, "And now?" she asked.

Kai faked a thought and then replied with a repetitive, "Chocolate."

Tori shook her head, hitting his side slightly, "Shut up." She mumbled, lying back down.

Kai smiled softly at the pout on her lips as she stared up at her ceilings. He turned over and slid closer to her, kissing her gently on the cheek, then on her lips again once she looked over at him. "My grumpy girl." He whispered jokingly.

"Grumpier boy." Tori mumbled, a little more offensively then when he'd said it. She closed the little gap between them for just a sweet little moment.

**A/N: There's chapter one to the Cats And Dogs sequel. I have quite a lot planned for this story so look out for it and I hope you enjoy the sequel as much as you enjoyed the first story. Please be patient with me. I've never actually written a sequel on here, this is my first and only because of the demand there was for a sequel. I hope you all enjoy it! Please leave a review and give me some feedback. Take care everyone. **


	2. Tragedy

_**Chapter 2**_

Tori groaned beneath the covers, turning over onto her stomach and picking up her wrist watch from the bedside table. Her eyes shot wide open at the sight of it and she hurriedly tripped out of bed, cursing quietly beneath her breath. Kai sat up slowly, wincing a bit at the pain in his side but still turning his head to look at her, "I'm late." She replied to his silent question as she put her shoes back on.

Kai huffed loudly, crawling back under the warm covers, not believing that she had panicked so much just because of that, "Just call and take the day off." He said simply.

"Since when have you gotten so lazy? I think I should be tougher on you during training." Tori said as she brushed her auburn hair back.

"Go ahead. Sooner or later my body's going to protest completely." Kai shrugged slightly, mumbling the last bit to himself.

Tori hadn't heard him, and probably for a good thing since she'd probably be even later for her recording since she would have stayed behind a bit longer to lecture him on the importance of regular hospital visits. Though she wasn't one to talk. She walked up beside the bed, giving him a kiss on the cheek just before running off while shouting, "I'm off, take care, alright?" she hadn't waited for an answer since by the time she'd gotten to the 'alright?' she'd already made it all the way down the hall to the front door.

Kai winced upon hearing the door banging tightly behind her, then shook his head and just curled up warmly beneath the thick covers. A light weight was felt beside him a moment later and he opened his eyes, "When the Mistress is gone the bit-beast comes out to play." He mumbled, closing his eyes again. "Came to point out the obvious…again?" he asked monotonously.

"Yes, I did…again!" Denzelle said confidently, "You really don't look like you're feeling very well. You should listen to Mistress Tori and your team mates, go to a doctor because it might be something serious." She spoke wisely as she turned over onto her stomach, supporting herself on her elbows so she could just watch him comfortably. "What do you have to lose?" she asked after a moment of silence past.

"I'm sure it's just a stomach bug, I'll be okay."

Denzelle sighed, hanging her head, "Fevers, tiredness, inflammation, nausea, dizziness, palpitations, hot and cold flashes, not for a couple of days but for two weeks straight. That's _not_ a stomach bug."

"It hasn't been two weeks." Kai mumbled tiredly.

Denzelle rolled her eyes at that, "Right, forgive me Master Kai, it's only been twelve days. Forgive my inaccuracy." The girl went on, sarcasm dripping off every syllable that escaped her lips. "Even Dranzer has been telling you to go to a doctor and he knows your body as well as you do. He doesn't have your pride or your stubbornness so technically in this case he knows what's right for you."

"I think I know what my own body's trying to say."

The bit-beast nodded reasonably, "While I admit that you've made an improvement over the years, since clearly you're resting a bit more when you're in pain, you're still stubborn enough to keep yourself from going to a doctor for something that could be serious." She lowered her head a bit more to see through the bangs that shadowed the Russian teenager's face, "If things get even a little bit worse will you please see a doctor? For my sake, Dranzer's and the sanity of your team mates?"

Kai nodded, naturally, anything to get her to be quiet, "Can I get some sleep now?" he asked in a weak whisper.

"It's three in the afternoon." She declared as she read the clock, "How can you possibly still be tired?" she asked with some confusion in her voice.

Kai kept quiet, intending on ignoring the girl till she went away. He turned over onto his back, shifting uncomfortably before turning onto his side, his back towards her.

Denzelle nodded, a smirk growing onto her lips, ready to tease the boy quietly as she peered over to look at him, "Ah, hard to sleep when Tori's pressed up against you huh?" she smiled even more upon seeing a small blush creeping onto his cheeks, just what she had wanted to see on his pale skin, "Am I right?" she asked.

"No." Kai answered simply, monotonously as always.

The girl laughed happily, then got off the bed, "Alright, I'm going to go and watch some TV or something. Join me later if you like it." She stepped closer to his side of the bed, giving his temple a quick kiss before gracefully running out of the bedroom.

The relationship between the bit-beast and the Russian had remained the same to a degree. The two still teased each other immensely. Denzelle was still the friend of the girlfriend that the boyfriend just had to tease. Its as though it all came out of an American comedy. Although over the span of two years Kai had at least gotten closer to Denzelle. She was the only thing that connected with Kai as well as Dranzer. For every little thing that Dranzer couldn't do to Kai due to the lack of a human body, Denzelle did for him and she was more than happy to do so as the two had become like good friends.

They'd all become really good friends over the years. Tori was good friends with Kai, the two had gotten immensely close and cared for each other more than they cared for themselves as individuals. The two had both gotten closer to the rest of the team, Tori since she was still relateively new by the end of her surgery, she got to know them all a lot better. Kai got closer to them, he opened up to them a bit more than he'd used to. Just a bit more naturally. That meant saying something like 'I've got a stomach ache' when it looked like he wasn't feeling well. He'd never told them about the much bigger things. In the meantime Denzelle and Kai had gotten closer whenever Tori was out and such. In turn, Denzelle had become great friends with the phoenix bit-beast which had been a relief for her, finally having a mature bit-beast to talk to.

So that was how her afternoon was spent. Lying around on the sofa, with the TV on mute while talking happily to the bit-beast in her mind. She was waiting rather patiently for one of the mortals to speak to her. Till then she had the entertainment of Dranzer.

**---Hours Later---**

Tori exhaled as she stopped at the apartment, late for dinner with Kai once again. She balanced the bag of Chinese food on her forearm as she fumbled with a key to open the mailbox. She dragged out the letters that where in there, then seeing one very familiar envelope. She huffed, being suddenly very upset. She stormed up the stairs and into her apartment, dumping the food in the kitchen. "Kai, dinner's here." She called into the apartment, fumbling through mail.

Kai walked into the kitchen and rummaged through the food in the bag, then catching sight of the girl leaving the room, "Aren't you eating?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I'll be back soon." Tori replied, not taking her eyes off the mail, "Need to go to the bathroom." She added just to keep him quiet. She hurried into her bedroom, locking the door behind her, "Stupid doctors." She mumbled to herself, tearing open the memorable envelope and scanning her eyes over it.

_To Ms Tori Komatsu,_

_I'm writing for about the twelfth time to call you back…_

"The usual." The girl mumbled bitterly. She walked over to the bin and squashed the paper and envelope into it, then picking up the rest of her mail and walking out of the room and back down the hall to the kitchen while still reading her mail. "How adorable…" she trailed off happily as she entered the kitchen.

"Me eating?" Kai asked her confusedly.

Tori laughed a little at that, "Naturally I can't say no completely to that. But actually I was referring to my old dog, she just had puppies." She got a confused look from Kai again, "Remember when I first got to Japan I had a puppy? Kei?" still nothing, "Well either way, once I got here I gave her away since I knew I wasn't well enough to keep her any longer and the woman I gave her to just sent me a letter telling me that Kei had puppies." She dropped her letter onto the table, then pulling her food closer to her.

"Sweet." Kai mumbled.

Tori sat back in her seat, moving her chopsticks around in her rice container, "Man I'm too exhausted to even eat." She complained with another sigh.

"Long day at work?"

"Yeah…and I think I'm getting a soar throat." Tori had gotten back in touch with someone who owned a studio, thus allowing her to record some songs. She'd met the person before her surgery so she'd refused the recording but now that she had time, she'd seen it as a good opportunity for herself. She'd gone back to school too, so all that took a lot of her time. She still hadn't told the team that she was recording a mini album. She wanted to tell them when it was done to surprise them. Kai was the only person who knew aside from Mr Dickinson and her parents. "I went to check on the team too, they were trying to drag me out for ice cream but I told them I had to get back here."

Kai smirked a bit and stood up, tossing the carton of food in the bin under the sink, "Just because I don't want to go out, doesn't mean you can't."

"I just said I'm exhausted." Tori shrugged a bit, trying desperately to eat up as much rice and chicken as she could. "Think I'm just going to go and lie down on the sofa, watch TV till I fall asleep." She finished up her food and just dumped it carelessly on the kitchen counter, "First…a nice hot relaxing bath." She mumbled softly to herself. She walked up to Kai, gave him a kiss on the cheek and then walked out of the kitchen and to her bathroom. Undressing, she stepped into the warm bath she'd just started filling and relaxing in the hot soapy water. She ran all her fingers through her shoulder length auburn hair, then sliding down the bath and into the water till she was covered in it completely. She got back out once the heat under the water got too much for her. She washed her hair and then got out of the bath as quick as she could, pulling her arms around her skinny body, "Damn it." She cursed, seeing no towel. _'Denzelle, could you please get me a towel?'_ she asked politely. With that a hand passed through between the gap in the door and a white towel fell to the floor, "Thank you." She called out, picking up the towel and wrapping it around herself. She got dressed into her comfortable pajama tracksuit, fixing her hair in the mirror then walking back out.

She sighed as she walked into the living room where Kai lay on the sofa waiting for her, "If you're going to use my towels, could you _please_ replace them? Do you know how annoying it feels walking out of a hot bath and freezing your ass off looking for a towel?" she sat down abruptly at the end of the sofa, huffing at the same time.

"I forgot, sorry." Kai replied quietly, turning over onto his back and looking at her across from him.

The girl lay down in front of Kai, her back close to his side until he turned over to wrap an arm around her, "For next time." Tori told him in a warning tone. She felt his arm around her waist and held onto it, pushing herself back a bit more against his chest, "I'm tired." She mumbled her complaint, turning over to face him and cuddling into his chest.

Kai rubbed at the small of her back a bit, then against her spine in a comforting manner, brushing his cheek against the top her head, "Why don't you go to bed?" he asked her quietly.

Tori tugged the blanket off the back of the sofa, then over herself and a bit over Kai unintentionally, "I don't want to go alone." She mumbled, kissing his arm a bit.

The older Russian exhaled at the sound of that and pushed back her damp hair away from her forehead, "Go to bed, I'll be there soon." He ordered her in a whisper.

The half-American girl pouted and shook her head at that, "Don't want to." She said childishly.

The boy nudged her a bit, tapping her shoulder continuously, "Yeah, you're going to bed now." He told her, pushing her into a sitting position, "Go to bed." He ordered again as he held onto her shoulders.

Tori pouted a little more, getting up, crossing her arms like a spoilt brat and huffing, "When are you coming to bed?" she asked, disappointment in her eyes.

"Soon." Kai lay back down, not looking up at her.

"Fine." The girl walked out with heavy and exhausted steps but mostly frustrated ones, not that Kai had cared all that much. "Don't come to bed too late." She called from her bedroom before the door slammed shut.

The lone beyblader turned over onto his back, wincing through heavily gritted teeth at the pain settling in his stomach. The pain coming up was what got him to convince her to leave the room, he hated it when she saw him in pain and the last thing he wanted was a lecture from her. More than a lecture he just didn't want to see her worrying again.

**---Next Morning---**

Tori stormed down the street towards the Dojo, backpack over her shoulder, "Just shut up." She mumbled.

Kai caught up to her, walking beside her as he crossed his arms, "I said I was sorry, three times actually."

"It doesn't matter."

"You're angry at me, so it _does_ matter." Kai argued with her.

Tori huffed at that, walking a little faster, "I'm not angry." She said bitterly, walking through the entrance of the Dojo and standing behind Ray on the platform, "Keep him away from me please." She told them, Ray in particular as she pointed a finger at Kai and then stormed into the Dojo and down the hall.

Tyson turned from her exit to Kai, looking on a little confusedly while asking, "What happened?"

"Nothing." Kai growled, walking past him to go after her. An arm blocked his path and he looked at the side to the owner which happened to be the blader who was given a strict order, "What are you doing?"

Ray shrugged a bit as though the answer where as clear as day, but clearly it wasn't as clear to his Russian team mate, "She really doesn't want to see you right now." He reminded.

"I need to talk to her." Kai grit his teeth, trying desperately to hold back anymore unintentional anger towards his team mates.

"You'll talk to her when she wants you to talk to her. For now, leave her alone."

Kai closed his eyes, calming himself ever so slightly before walking away a bit, "She doesn't need to make such a big deal about it." He murmured to himself.

"Why's Tori so upset, Kai?" Max asked rather innocently, walking up behind his captain.

"I don't know, she just woke up this way." Kai replied, secretly lying to his team again. The real reason the girl was so angry was because he'd never gone to bed in the night like he'd promised. That was actually bad for numerous reasons. The first being that she hated going to bed alone for the reason that since her surgery she hated feeling alone. The second reason was that in her mind, if he didn't show up for bed then it meant something was wrong. He'd gone to the bathroom for an hour that night, after she went back to bed he went back to the living room and didn't go anywhere near her, confirming her suspicions that something was wrong. And then if that wasn't enough then there was the fact that he'd fallen asleep on the sofa. He hated doing that and with the pain in his body he never dared sleeping over there, so to her it was a bigger reason that something was wrong. He knew for a fact that his pain was killing her more than it was even hurting him. She was always angered by his lack of consideration towards her in that department. She never forced him to go to doctors but the least that she asked of him was that he'd be honest with her.

"Maybe it's just that time of the month." Tyson shrugged, sitting down abruptly onto the platform. The Dragon got glares from every other member on his team, with the exception for the girl who wasn't present, "What?" he asked, clueless.

Kai shook his head a bit, refusing to say anything else on the subject. "Let's just go down to the beach, get training started and when the drama-queen wants to join us she will." He began leaving, then stopping at the Dojo gate, "Now." He said, fully knowing that the three where probably about to creep back into the Dojo to talk to the girl. He heard them following hurriedly so they began leaving even though he knew a question was coming on.

"Shouldn't we at least let her know that we're leaving?" Max asked, looking back at the Dojo that was slowly thinning.

The captain crossed his arms and sighed, walking on, "She's a smart girl, she'll figure it out eventually." He replied in his monotonous tone.

"Still don't believe me about them breaking up?" Tyson asked Ray in a whisper.

"I just don't see it." Max interrupted.

Tyson exhaled and threw his arms up in frustration, "But they're _always_ arguing!" he exclaimed, still keeping quiet.

"They've been arguing with each other since day one." Ray pointed out.

Tyson sighed yet again, this time as though the answer were completely obvious, "But never like this. Now they're calling each other names, Tori's getting to us to keep Kai away from her, they're hardly home at the same time together since Tori's been going out lately and Kai's been staying home and have you seen the way she's been pushing Kai during training? Kai hasn't been feeling well either, usually she'd be careful about it but these days she just orders him to go home. They're the same people we know when they're with us but with each other their completely different people."

"Maybe he's right." Ray murmured.

Max pouted a bit, "I'm sure there's a good reason for all those things." He quipped, trying to be positive as always.

"Like?"

"I don't know!" Max sulked.

'_Well I can think of one reason but that's not for their age.' _Ray thought. "I think if they had broken up they would have told us by now." He said hurriedly.

"They were a cute couple, maybe they just don't want to have to explain to us what happened."

Max exhaled with a pout, still sulking, crossing his arms, speaking softly, "It's none of our business. Let's just drop the subject before Kai hears us." He used that as an excuse to change the subject, the discussion of how Kai and Tori were breaking up wasn't a subject to his liking.

"I feel sort of bad for just leaving." Tyson called to Kai who was ahead of them.

"She's a big girl, she can take good care of herself." Kai said in that same dull voice of his.

Ray looked on at his captain a little uncomfortably, "I get this feeling it's going to be a really long training session as long as Kai's in control of it."

**---Later---**

Tori arrived out on the beach where three familiar boys sat close to the water. She gripped tighter onto the strap of her backpack as she stepped closer behind them, tilting her head to the side, "Hey guys." She greeted quietly, crouching down onto the ground beside Max, looking out at the waves intently.

"Hey." They all greeted her with smiles, somehow she didn't like that.

"Where's Kai?" Tori asked, trying not to sound too interested in him.

Tyson smiled a bit more, he took it as a sign that she still cared about him, "He went back to the apartment." He answered her.

"The fever was back so we told him to go home, take a medic and get some sleep." Ray added.

Tori shot off the ground, glaring down at them all, "You guys actually trusted that guy to walk home by himself with another fever?!" she exclaimed rudely.

Max got off the ground with her, looking at her with some reason in his eyes, "He wouldn't let us go with him." He informed.

"He said he wanted us to wait for you here in case you showed up." Tyson explained.

Tori relaxed in her own skin a bit, closing her eyes just momentarily, "Did you guys train today?" she asked in a calmer tone. She got three respective nods from the members, "Alright…" she smiled weakly, she looked like she'd been crying but she hid it so well, "Let's go get some ice-cream, okay?" she asked quietly.

The four teenagers settled themselves on the wall at the back of the beach, not far from the kiosk they'd all bought their ice creams from. Tori watched on with a little disgust at Tyson's hunger for the large tub of ice-cream he had, still not being used to watching him eat like a pig after two years.

"So…what's been up with you and Kai lately? …Always fighting." Tyson spoke out through slurs of strawberry ice-cream.

"Tyson!" The two males shot at him hurriedly.

A weak laugh was heard coming from the girl, "We're always fighting, you all know that so it's nothing new. Lately we've just been having some more disagreements, it's no big deal."

"Seems like more than just that to us."

"Us?" Tori raised an eyebrow, then looking from Ray to Max, "You two agree with him?" she asked them interestingly. She watched the two act as though she hadn't addressed them at all which made Tyson fume quite a bit.

"They did about six hours ago!" He exclaimed with fury.

Tori shrugged and jumped off the wall with a smirk, "Well sorry to say Tyson, but it seems like you're in a team of traitors." She accused as she picked up her backpack, "I'm going to go home, make sure Mr Stone-heart hasn't died of a fever yet."

"Tell us how he is when you get there." Ray said hurriedly in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, tell him we've been worried." Max added.

The girl give the blonde a half hug and nodded, "Will do. Bye guys." She walked off with that, in not much of a hurry to get home it seemed.

"I guess things with them aren't so bad." Ray shrugged a bit as he looked at the other two.

Tyson glared a bit out of the corner of his eyes, still eating his ice-cream before mumbling, "Traitor."

Tori made her way home quietly, fidgeting with texts on her phone on her way there. She went through countless old messages from Kai that seemed to have reminded her of all the reasons she loved him so much. Her anger was slowly withering away but the root of it was still there and it would remain there for a long time. Though it didn't mean she was going to let it irritate her and ruin her relationship with the teenager. With that in mind she fumbled with her keys and opened the apartment door, "Kai." She called into the apartment, probably waking up the teenager if he'd gone to rest. She walked into the living room to put down her bag, her eyebrows furrowing with confusion as she saw her bedroom quilt lying on the sofa. "Kai?" she asked confusedly. The girl walked over to the sofa and gently picked up the blanket, getting a fright when she saw Kai under there and had just opened his eyes to look at her. "Kai! What the hell are you doing under there?" she lashed out, putting a hand to her chest to slow down her breathing.

"Attempting to sweat out a fever, problem?" he asked her, then dragging the blanket over his head again.

"You're not going to sweat it out under there, instead you're going to bake." The girl said down at his waist on the sofa. She tugged the blanket down a bit to look at him, "Go and take a hot shower, that'd do you some more good than this will."

"I've already tried." Kai whispered weakly, putting a hot hand to his even hotter forehead. He closed his eyes, feeling dizzy staring at the girl that looked down at him, "Besides, I can't get up." he added.

"Well the others are really worrying about you. You could end so much of this pain and these fevers if you just go to a doctor."

"They're just stomach pains and fevers, the doctor isn't going to tell me anything I don't already know."

"He could tell you _why_ you're getting these stomach pains and fevers. He could also tell you what to take so that you don't have to deal with them every day!" She argued continuously with him on the same subject. She sighed as she shook her head, "Fine. Fine…do what you like but I don't want you to suffer like this. I want you to get up, go and have another hot shower, change into something warm and get some sleep in bed, rather than on this back-breaking sofa." She got up and placed two hands out for him to take, which instead he just stared at, "Come on, you've got to get up. You can either do it by yourself and practically kill yourself at the same time or you can get up with my help which probably serves as the much wiser option right now." With those few words Kai pushed off the blankets and took both her hands, acting as though he didn't have a choice when he sighed so heavily in front of her. "Hey, I could always let go of you if that makes you feel better." She said rather harshly.

With that in mind Kai pulled himself to get up a little more and let go of her, taking a deep and shaky breath before walking past her and out of the living room to follow the orders he had been given. He wasn't quite sure if the girl was still mad at him or if she was just putting up a tough front but till he fell through with all she asked him to do and got some sleep he wasn't going to know for sure anyway. He left her alone to do everything before crawling into his bed and hoping to wake up at a decent body temperature rather than his ever-lasting fever.

At about 11:30 he'd heard the girl coming into the bedroom, go to have a shower and then creep into the empty space beside him in the bed. He'd felt her curl her fingers around his hand that had been resting on the pillow. He also felt a light cold breeze against his forehead when she brushed his hair off his sweating forehead. That's all it was. He just felt her close to him and that was it.

**A/N: Chapter two is done! Hope you're enjoying this story. I know not much has happened yet but don't worry, things will get moving soon enough and you'll hopefully enjoy this story a little bit more. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Take care everyone!**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

Tori slowly began to stir, seeming to be in no hurry to wake up and get out of bed. Upon opening her eyes carefully she shifted her body slightly, finding she'd been lying with her head on Kai's chest with his arm around her shoulders. She brushed her hand against her cheek where Kai's thumb had been touching. When he'd noticed her waking he'd moved his hand down to her side and lifted his head a bit to look at her, "Morning." He whispered.

"Too soon to be morning." Tori mumbled, tugging the blankets up a little higher and tucking herself into his side.

"It's 8:30am." Kai laughed quietly.

The auburn-haired girl beside him groaned quietly, "Like I said…" she yawned, "Too soon to be morning." She complained.

"I'm sorry about yesterday." The stoic-captain said in a soft and shy tone.

Tori smiled a bit, looking up without straining her neck or making herself uncomfortable, "If you let me sleep in as long as I need to then I can act as though it never happened."

"We can't miss training again…" Kai murmured.

Tori pouted crossly and sat up vaguely, "Do you really want me in a mood with you all day?" she asked. The boy shook his head at her under her suddenly cold but still exhausted stare. She rested her head back down onto his shoulder with a deep exhale, "Good because I'm too exhausted to try to be."

"Maybe I should get back to the team." Kai protested in a whisper.

"Give them a few days off, I've been training you guys like crazy lately, a few days off will do us _all_ some good." She opened her eyes again as clearly she wasn't going to be getting back to sleep until the conversation was over. Her eyes wandered to the side of Kai's stomach that bulged out a bit and before she knew it her hand was sliding beneath the covers to touch it gently. She heard him wince very quietly, even hearing him grit his teeth to hold a cry back and his whole body tensing up immensely. She lifted his white t-shirt gently, stroking the swollen area. "This really is worrying me Kai, it could be something serious like cancer." She said it in a complaining tone as she always did, still sounding very concerned.

"I'm sure it isn't." Kai smirked as he tugged his shirt back down.

Tori huffed quietly, "How do you know?"

"Because I just know." Kai growled quietly.

Tori sat up, her hands to one side and gripping at the sheets to steady herself, "Just like you did two years ago?" she asked rhetorically.

"It's not going to be anything like that."

Tori shook her head, looking at the boy menacingly, "Kai I swear if anything happens…I just know I'll…"

"You'll go insane. I know…I've been told once before already." Kai cut her off short, sitting up and giving her a timid kiss on the cheek, "Stop worrying, I'm sure it's nothing serious." He lay back down, his hand stroking the small of her back to get her to relax a bit which he seemed to be failing at.

"It's amazing how your stubbornness seems to infuriate me a little more every single day." Tori mumbled furiously, lying back down onto her back, away from him. "God…" She mumbled quietly, slamming her hands lightly at the empty space beside her body, "I can't believe you won't listen to me…do you actually know what I'd do if I lost you just because you couldn't be bothered about your health enough to go to a doctor?" tears suddenly stung at her eyes, and she looked at them with sadness and fury in them, "Do you _really_ know what I'd do if I lost you?" she asked.

Kai shook his head at that, sitting up, "You're not going to lose me so don't worry about that. You're starting to get paranoid about this when you shouldn't be."

"Like you weren't paranoid when we first met?" Tori lashed out quietly, "What did you have back then to give you the right to be worried about me, that I don't have now to worry about you?"

Kai sat up, turning to her completely, "It's not the same thing." He argued calmly.

Tori shook her head as she slid off the bed, turning to him too with a look of some disbelief, "How isn't it?"

The Russian sighed and looked up at her, "You were dieing, but I'm not." He remained calm, not daring to argue louder in case he just made things worse that way. Then again, he was feeling weak, too weak to argue loudly anyway. Too weak to argue, period.

"You don't even know what's wrong with you. Just like I didn't." She turned to storm out of the bedroom, reaching for the door knob when Kai caught her hand just as her long fingers touched the cold metal. He pulled her around, at which she could only look up at him with her same sense of sadness and anger, she saw him brushing her bangs of auburn hair away from her face and behind her ears and stroking the side of her neck at the same time, "You're not getting out of this one easily." She stated, trying to muster up a cold tone.

"Stop panicking, it's unnecessary." He whispered with some sort of care in his tone, though that same cold-voice Kai was well-known for.

Tori pouted, crossed her arms and tilted her head to one side, "If you really want me to stop panicking…" she began in an almost innocent tone, then tilting her head to the other side with a nod, "You'll go to a doctor." She said that coldly, then turning and walking out of the bedroom.

Kai rolled his eyes at that, thinking that she was being a bit of a drama queen. "Tori…" He called after her, walking hurriedly down the hall. He'd bit back his own thoughts of the situation for long enough and before he knew it they passed his lips by themselves, "You're more than just over reacting now."

Tori's mouth gaped open at that, her eyebrows raising before she even turned round, "Yet…" she said in a calm tone, "If I had told you that two years ago…" she paused, tilting her head to the side once again and looking at him almost evilly, "You would have strangled me at my words." She watched him open his mouth to speak but she raised her index finger in front of her accusingly, "Don't. Don't deny it, just think about it and you'll realize it's the truth." She didn't get any more words from him thankfully which left her to freely walk into the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Kai sighed inwardly, resting his back against the wall and knocking his head back against it, "What am I doing?" he asked himself softly.

'_Attempting to ruin a good relationship?' _

'_I didn't ask you Dranzer.' _Kai bit out into his own mind.

'_Well…' _The fiery bit-beast started, _'You didn't exactly direct the question so I just thought I should put in my view.' _

'_You thought wrongly then didn't you?' _Kai asked rudely, exhaling and walking back into the bedroom to lie down, feeling like the conversation with Dranzer was already physically and emotionally exhausting him.

Dranzer exhaled too at all the thoughts going on in his Master's mind, _'So many of your problems will basically just disappear if you took an hour of your life to go to a doctor.' _

The Russian groaned at that, mumbling extra colorful curses beneath his breath, _'Not you too.'_

'_Of course me too. I, as everyone else, am worried about you and your health.' _

The male turned over on the bed, uncomfortably lying down on the swollen side of his stomach, _'Haven't we had this conversation?'_

'_I suppose we'll just have it again until it sticks.' _Dranzer retorted in a frustrated tone. By now he still found it hard to believe that Tori, being the intelligent and influencing person she was, was still unable to bring Kai to take care of himself well enough. _'I still don't quite understand why exactly you're scared of going to a doctor and getting this thing checked out. The swelling is really bad, aren't you even a little bit concerned about what it is?' _

'_No, I'm not.' _

Still disbelievingly, _'Not even just a little bit?' _he asked.

'_Not even.' _

Dranzer sighed, almost impatiently, _'If you won't go to a doctor for yourself, won't you at least go for Tori's sake?' _

'_When will you stop?'_

'_When you begin to take into consideration all that I'm telling you.' _

Sharp pains continued urupting in Kai's side, feeling like one of his organs was throbbing and going to burst inside his stomach, not a good feeling at all. He winced at one more sharp pain, then moving onto his back, _'Just leave me alone for a while…I need to think.'_

'_I do hope that one of those things you're going to be thinking about is going to the doctor.'_

Rolling his eyes at that comment, he sighed yet again, _'Stop prying and just go.' _with that last order in his mind the bit-beast disappeared back into his blade, leaving his Master to his own thoughts and to rest for a while.

The main thing on his mind was how he was going to somehow apologize to Tori for what he said. She wasn't one to get touchy usually but with time she tended to be offended quite easily when someone tried to tell her how she felt or criticized the way she acted when in actual fact she was just expressing her emotions. He knew he shouldn't have said what he had but he couldn't have held it in any longer. In the past he had always said what was on his mine when it came to disagreements with his team mates but with Tori he felt he shouldn't always do that. First off, she was a girl, and he saw her as a little too touchy at times to be able to handle his constant disagreements and opinions. Second, he didn't always actually mean what he said so he sometimes regretted things after he'd said them.

Now more than any pain he was feeling from the swelling in his stomach, it didn't compare to the pain and frustration of having upseted the girl the way he did. He wouldn't usually feel this bad for everyone, but after the girl had helped him so much, he felt as though he were selfish for bestowing such pain on her. With that in mind he got off the bed, pushing past that same aching pain and walking to where he knew the girl still was. Tapping lightly on the bathroom door he waited patiently for her to open, seeing her standing there with arms crossed, "What?" she asked.

Kai shifted uncomfortably, apologizing never being an easy task for him. He stepped a little closer, looking down with her almost begging for sympathy so he wouldn't have to apologize for anything. It obviously didn't work though, she just kept staring back at him as though waiting for him to tell her something important with that same anger and frustration in her eyes. That was what made him feel at his worst. Her dark brown eyes layered with pain and anger, red circles around them to emphasize the tears she'd probably cried because of him. He opened his mouth to speak and something in her eyes changed, prying him to talk more, "I'm sorry." He apologized quietly, even after two years still finding it difficult to say such things.

Tori's appearance softened momentarily and she pulled at her arms for her hands to rest on the door, "Are you going to go to a doctor?" she asked him calmly.

The Russian looked on at her, being unable to reply in the way she wanted. Obviously, she took his silence as a no.

"There's no point of apologizing for something if you're not going to fix it." Those being her final words before she closed the door and locked him out again.

He rested his forehead against the bathroom, not being sure about what to do next. His pride had already been wounded enough for one day so another apology along with a doctor's appointment definitely wasn't an option. He walked off again, picking up some clean clothes and went to the second bathroom to have a shower and change. Without Tori making him breakfast, he saw no need to even go to the kitchen to get something to eat. After showering and changing he sat down in the living room to think for a while, also waiting to see if Tori would come out of the bathroom. She didn't. Following the loneliness Kai got up, walked to the bedroom to pick up his beyblade and launcher and prepared to leave. He stopped in front of the bathroom, hearing the girl inside sobbing quietly. Heaving a painful sigh Kai shook his head slightly and walked back down the hall and out the apartment door.

In the meantime Tori continued to cry profoundly, grabbing at her head as the overwhelming throbbing persisted as it always did when she felt this bad. Internally she was screaming at herself that she was probably over-reacting but for some reason or another the fear of losing her best friend, and the one person she loved more than life itself, would kill her faster than anything else ever would.

She blamed him. She blamed him for everything.

While she never wanted to feel pain she always wished she'd live long enough to feel happiness. One of many reasons she hadn't wanted to take the surgery was because she never wanted to feel this kind of emotional and physical pain in her life. Then Kai came into her life and he slowly tore her down till she changed her mind. So now whenever she felt this kind of emotional pain she always blamed him. If it weren't for him then she'd never have to suffer.

She was being selfish and she knew it far too well. After all, Kai did more than make her suffer. He made her feel happy, he made her feel loved and cared for. Ever since she met him she never felt alone in anything she did. When she'd gotten the opportunity to put together a small album she was the first one she told and he was the first one to support her. When she had to go to extra treatments after her surgery he was always the first to offer to go with her. Even back when she was unconfident in her own skin, he always made it clear to her that she looked fine and still pretty. She'd felt comfortable around him sometimes after the surgery, scared that he found her too skinny from the medication, or that he didn't like her short hair but he always knew how she felt and always reassured her, letting her know the truth which always made her happy.

To get straight to the point; the good always out weighed the bad she felt but it was because of all this good, that she was hurting so much. She was terrified that now she'd lose him and that all the good would end and she was just left with another miserable life. She knew it was stupid to assume that whatever he had was life threatening but after being in and out of hospitals for so long, she'd seen a lot of things happen and a lot of people lose their lives in the most simplest of ways. Then in all fairness, Kai didn't exactly have an impeccable health record. Far from it. When he was younger he'd been admitted into hospitals for just about everything a kid his age could have suffered from and more. Scratches, cuts, bruises, head injuries, broken bones, internal bruising, allergies, infections, the list, when they'd opened his medical record together, was endless. All that was all up until he was about twelve and all knew that there was plenty more after that. His 103 fever about a year ago was one of many things and all this was without his occasional check ups for his Acute PTSD.

With all this going through her mind, she couldn't find it all that hard to believe that he could have something serious. It ticked her off that he just wouldn't do anything about it. Couldn't he possibly understand the way she felt about all this? Couldn't he understand that she just cared about him so much that he wanted him to be safe? Clearly he couldn't and with time it began to infuriate her more and more.

She found it difficult to believe how things went from picture perfect like them curled up in bed together, to a terrible full-blown argument that could rip the two apart completely. Even for a moment, she couldn't believe how close the two were to losing all they'd worked so hard on in the past two or so years. The water in the bathtub now kept on running and she slid down till she was buried in hot water and got up when she found it too hot and she couldn't breathe. She got out of the bath and slipped the towel around herself. She avoided the mirror as she always did, after so long still not being able to break that habit. Even after all this time without being stuck on medications, she still hadn't taken in the fact that she was actually looking a lot healthier.

The only clean clothing she had in there were her under garments so pulling those on and tightening the towel around her body, she walked out into the hall and to her bedroom. She was too busy tearing her wardrobe apart to find something decent to wear to even realize that Kai was no where to be heard in the apartment. She'd settled on a rather proper outfit for someone who was usually so casual but it always happened that on a day she wanted to try to feel better she'd get dressed up to go out and enjoy herself.

She wore a pair of beige shorts and a black and gold striped tank top underneath a white shirt that ended just mid-thigh. To keep the shirt fitted on her body perfectly she wore a gold belt and then pulling on a pair of black high-heeled boots. She stood in front of the mirror, fixing up her shoulder length auburn hair and applying some make up as she suddenly felt really good about herself. The indulgence sometimes made her forget about everything that was bothering her or frustrating her.

Confidently she picked up her black handbag and her phone off the bedside table and walked down the hallway to the front door, sliding her keys off the hook and opening the door before a voice from down the hall called after her, "Where are you going?" Denzelle asked, a pout on her face.

"First to the grocer to buy some chocolate and then to the hospital." Tori replied, sounding as though she were back to normal.

Denzelle walked down the hall slowly, looking a little confused, "Are you finally going in for that second check-up?" she asked curiously.

The auburn-haired girl shook her head a bit, "No, I'm going to go visit the children. It's been just over a week since I last saw them."

The bit-beast laughed, leaning against the wall by the door, "You saw them four days ago before you went to work." She pointed out.

Tori thought for just a moment, then nodding, "Right…well…that's still a long time." She defended herself, smiling softly, "I'm off, I'll see you later." She waved her hand as she exited with that, shutting the door behind herself slowly. She took a deep breath, hanging her head momentarily, "That was a close one." She murmured. Following that, she walked down the steps hurriedly and ran out onto the street. She felt the cold autumn air on the skin of her arms and thighs, the wind gently rushing through her hair.

A sharp pain ran through her head once again, causing her to pause and place a hand to the wall to keep herself still. A white stream of light flashed in front of her eyes at that, gasping and staring at the ground till it stopped.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Tori stormed down the street towards the Dojo, backpack over her shoulder, "Just shut up." She mumbled. _

_Kai caught up to her, walking beside her as he crossed his arms, "I said I was sorry, three times actually." _

"_It doesn't matter." _

"_You're angry at me, so it does matter." Kai argued with her. _

_Tori huffed at that, walking a little faster, "I'm not angry." She said bitterly, walking through the entrance of the Dojo and standing behind Ray on the platform, "Keep him away from me please." She told them, Ray in particular as she pointed a finger at Kai and then stormed into the Dojo and down the hall. She stepped into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her at which the bang sent a splitting pain through her skull. She staggered slowly towards the sink, grabbing onto it tightly and staring at herself in the mirror before rinsing her face with cool water and looking back up. "Stupid men, they're all the same." She mumbled before she took a sharp breath. "Take it easy Tori." She added to herself. _

_**---End Flashback—**_

"Yeah…" Tori mumbled softly to herself, "Got to take it easy." She reminded herself. She took a deep breath, crossing her arms and looking around herself as she saw everyone just walking on as though she hadn't been there at all. It was the way she liked, she'd finally understood why Kai liked things that way a lot. She smiled yet again and then continued to walk down the street like absolutely nothing ever happened. She enjoyed the silent walk all the way to the grocer and then to the hospital, once getting there, rushing up to the children's ward with eagerness. "Morning." She greeted them, placing her handbag on the rack by the door as she laughed when a group of the non-bed ridden children grouped up to her.

"Tori!" One girl exclaimed, lunging towards Tori who caught her in her arms.

"Heya sunshine, how are you doing?" The older girl asked, balancing the child in her arms to rest comfortably on her side. She watched the girl just smile happily and nod in a way that indicated that she was doing fine. "And the rest of you?" she asked, looking around the rest of the small ward.

"Today everyone's fine but Seiji-chan went to surgery." One of the boy's in a bed sulked.

Tori walked a little more into the room and sat down in a chair, sulking a little too, "Do you know if it's bad?" she asked them, particularly looking in the direction of the two thirteen year olds who would know better.

One replied, "It must have been for them to rush him out that quick."

"I'm sure he'll be okay." A girl on the ground said, shifting uncomfortably. She looked up at her with bright blue eyes and tried a smile at Tori, "Right?"

Tori always saw a little bit of herself in this one particular girl. The two of them both suffered from the same thing; brain tumors. Also, this girl, Kanae, was always trying to look on the Brightside of things when it came to these kind of things and always trying to make other people feel better, even though there wasn't always 100 reassurance, "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be okay." She agreed happily. "Besides, I bought chocolate, I'm sure it'll cheer him up later." She added with a smile, watching as their little faces all brightened up a bit and whispers echoed through the whole room. "Only after lunch." She reminded all of them in a stern voice but an amused smile on her face.

"Just one?" The girl on Tori's lap whispered with a soft smile.

The oldest girl was surrounded by pleading stares from all the boys and girls around her. She took in each and everyone of the looks on all of their sweet young faces which all read the same thing to her. This caused her to smile with some defeat, "Fine, but just one." She gave in. She put the girl that had been on her lap back down and leant down to Kanae, "Will you go get my bag?"

The girl smiled with great happiness, she just loved it when people trusted her to do things. She felt needed and accomplished, especially since everyone in the hospital saw herself as too weak. Her excitement got the best of her it seemed though, since once she'd rushed up and walked across the room, a familiar white flash of pain rushed in front of her eyes and in through her head. She fell back onto the floor, sitting up slowly as she'd begun to hold her head in her hands. Tori and a nurse on the other side of the room were the first people to rush up to her, some of the other children not too far behind.

She seemed to come to quite quickly after that, looking up to find herself sitting in Tori's arms as she stared down at her with some concern, only covering it up with her usual soft smile, "Hey," she murmured, "You okay?" the girl gave her a shy nod, still holding onto her head until the nurse took her out of the other girl's arms.

"Let's get you back on your medication." The nurse told her, picking the girl up and taking her out of the room.

"I'll come and see you later." Tori called after her. She looked on with some concern in her eyes as the girl was taken away, though in her heart she knew that if there had been hope for herself, there was definitely hope for this girl as long as she kept believing.

**A/N: That's another chapter! Sorry for it taking so long but I've been extremely busy lately so please have patience and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can. **

**This chapter was basically to reflect Kai and her arguments, and how having the surgery done and having a long lasting life is affecting Tori heavily. Hope I was able to bring through enough emotions. Thanks for the read! **


	4. Suffocation

_**Chapter 4**_

Tori rested her heavy head on her limp arms that were resting on the bed in front of her, Kanae lying there with the IV drip still in her arm. Tori had been there for an hour already, having gone to visit the girl like she'd promised her she would. The one hour was dragging at her and she didn't want to leave until she knew that Kanae knew that she had been there beside her and had kept her promise. After all, her promises were meant to be kept. Promises anyone made were meant to be kept.

So why couldn't Kai keep his promise to her?

She shook her head of that, shutting her eyes tight as she attempted ridding herself of such more thoughts of him. She really didn't want to think about him for a while but at the same time such an action was almost impossible. She attempted distracting herself by watching the suffering girl in front of her but that only reminded her even more of Kai. It reminded her that he was probably lying at home or out somewhere carrying a heavy physical and internal pain that he just refused to tend to.

He loved her didn't he? So why couldn't he keep his promise to her? At what point had she failed him so much that he felt he couldn't fulfill his promise to her? She still kept the promise she had with him, she kept it and she thought about it every single day and as much as it pained her she still never questioned it or went against it…so why was his promise to her any different?

Her unhelpful and inescapable train of thoughts was interrupted for the first time, something small, soft and gently touching her hand that lay on the bed. She looked at her hand, tracing the small hand on her own all the way to its weak owner. The auburn haired girl stood up in a hurry, taking a light grip on the child's hand, "Hey…are you okay?" she asked with plenty of concern in her eyes.

Sparkling green eyes actually smiled through the weakness, holding brightness in them that without the girl's face actually moving much, you could tell she was thinking positively, "I'm fine." She replied in a whisper.

Concern overtook Tori completely by now like she always did when in a situation like this, "You want me to get you something? A drink? Something to eat? A nurse for help?" she asked frantically.

Kanae's eyes fluttered closed and she finally smiled, being unable to keep her eyes open while she smiled due to her lack of strength, "I'm fine." She repeated. She sometimes did that. The medication always made her extremely drowsy and affected her power of speech, her young tiny and immature body being unable to take such strong medications which caused her to repeat her own words at times.

Carefully Tori placed her hand out, using just her index finger to brush aside a strand of hair in the young child's face, being sure not to scare or hurt the overly fragile human being.

With this one move she noticed something. She treated Kai with the same caution, treating him as though he were just as fragile. And she always did it, not just when he was ill but she did it always. Was this the reason why he couldn't fulfill his promise, because she pushed him away by treating him as though he were as fragile as a porcelain doll? Was it all really a mistake, or was it a blessing on his behalf and he just didn't notice it?

**---That Evening---**

Tori sat down on a bench in the park, her pale tear stained face being covered by her hands for a moment. She sat back, gripping tightly at the bag in her hands, her grip increasing as she stared up uninterestingly at the sky. She glanced over to a kitten that walked out from a few bushes and Tori's bright brown eyes met the large eyes of the kitten at which the feline hissed at her coldly. She shuddered at that and shook her head once the cat just walked off again. She got up weakly, sweeping her hair back neatly into a nice bun as she began walking in the direction of the apartment.

It took her a while to get her since she'd opted to take her time, stopping once to go to the grocer to buy some coffee for Kai, since by now she knew full well that Kai without coffee wasn't very good. She'd bought herself some chocolate and ice-cream, people thinking of her as strange probably since it was rather cold out. That was the one factor that had brought her to pick up the pace, the fact that it had begun drizzling and she didn't want to get caught in the heavy rain, especially dressed the way she was. She entered the apartment and dumped her bag down by the door with a heavy exhale, then walking into the kitchen to get a drink to quench her thirst and soothe her own insides from worry. She paced the kitchen as she sipped her drink, then sitting back against the counter as she sipped her drink quietly.

Having been standing at a place where she could see the window in the wall that divided the kitchen from the living room she finally could see Kai sitting back on the ground by the balcony door, one leg stretched in front of him, one close to his chest as his stretched arm lay on top of it and he was half looking outside. Without even realizing her actions Tori literally dropped the glass of water into the sink, ignoring the loud crashing sound it made once it came in contact with and broke a plate that had been in there, her full attention being on the boy in the other room. Before she knew it she was sitting on the ground in front of him, her blurry vision focusing intently on Kai's face and the numerous winces that he showed.

_'The dull weather outside matched the look in your eyes; coming to think of it, such is a rare occasion because your eyes were usually brimming with energy, and they've always looked alive, you're monotonous but that doesn't mean you're dead. But that spark in your eyes is clearly gone __by __now; those enchanted __crimson __eyes that I've always been fascinated with and could stare into for hours, the same pair of eyes belonging only to you and no other that was capable of completely taking my words away. You could steal my words. Yet whenever I was speechless I could always find my words in you, because only you could understand without me saying a thing.'_

Her thoughts were calm…at a decent, thoughtful pace, yet her body and heart moved faster than that. All she could do was feel her heart beating faster and faster in her own chest, causing this great anxiety to grow through some of her fear. She placed her hand on his shoulder, again with the same care she would any of the weak children in the hospital. A part of her knew it was wrong but she couldn't help it. "Kai…" her whisper barely reached him she was so quiet. "Are you okay?" she asked, breathing a little faster.

The Russian brushed a hand along her cheek with care, resting his head back and closing his eyes, "Yeah."

The grip on Kai's shoulder tightened and tightened as the girl's breathing became harder and harder, "I…I…" she began, not knowing where she was going with this, dubbing over as the pain and anxiety began growing too much. "I…I can't do this anymore." She whispered. She took a deep breath upon realizing what came out of her mouth, then looking up and finally locking eyes with him, "I can't do this anymore." She repeated herself, some regret in her yelling voice.

_'You…You probably think I'm mad for worrying and panicking this much over you…don't you Kai? Do you really understand? Do you understand the number of deaths I've seen in my short life? __Do you really understand why I'm panicking this much over you? Or have you not yet realized the intensity of my feelings towards you?' _

The girl hid her face from him as she dubbed over more, slamming one hand against the ground continuously as she sobbed in absolute silence, leaving Kai to take in the scene that he'd been written into as it unfolded. He was calm while watching this, he always was calm in these situations. As long as it wasn't him having the emotional breakdown, he could think clearly his usual calculated thoughts.

_'__Still no reply came, and after about a minute later I thought I heard you whimper softly. I felt my collar bones getting a little wet as you moved closer to bury your face deep into the crook of my neck, hiding from my gaze completely__You didn't want me to see you weeping silently, did you? You're always trying to put up a strong front, and then when you finally shatter and break down, you still hide. There's no need to hide from me, I know everything about you. Yet this was one of the things I liked a__bout you, it's funny actually. __Your cries__are __suddenly __so quiet it'__s almost inaudible. Never have I met someone who could cry yet still look so beautiful at the same time. You're beautiful and you know tha__t, I'm sure that I've told you that a couple of times__, but you still hide__How can we be so alike yet so different__Tori__?'_

Kai just as cautiously wrapped his arm around the upper half of Tori's back, pulling her closer to him and running his fingers through her hair. He wasn't quite sure how to comfort her, he never knew how really but he always tried. This time he knew that no matter what he said it wouldn't make a difference. He'd already apologized for what he'd said and for his failure to cooperate with what she wanted but words didn't mean all that much right now. Right now she wanted actions and that meant he had to go to a doctor, whether he liked it or not.

He closed his eyes again, resting back and pulling the girl with him to relax, kissing her cheek occasionally to calm down her frustration and tears and to preferably distract himself from the ever growing pain in the side of his stomach. It only kept on getting worse and there's wasn't all that much he could do to stop it. For now all he could do was distract himself from it and hope it just went away.

It definitely wouldn't be the case though.

**---Next Morning---**

Kai had been the first person to wake up this gloomy morning. It was dark out because of the thunderstorm, Tori had seen this upon waking up in her bed, seeing through the window behind Kai on the other side of the room. She'd woken up a few minutes after him, having found herself in her bed, all her clothing of the night before still on which made sense since she hadn't remembered having stopped crying to change and get to bed. Upon waking up, she'd noticed Kai staring at her. The two made no sign towards each other, no smile, no smirk, no snarl, nothing. They didn't acknowledge each other all that much. They just stared right into each other's eyes, keeping their thoughts of the other to themselves, as that was the place they were best kept until things sorted themselves out.

_'__He's__ beautiful. And while he has no patience for the rest of the world__ around him__, he always __seems to have the__ patience for me. He'll blank __out __the rest of the world, but he can't do that to me. I think I must be the only person who has ever seen him cry. __Ever listened to his fears and __worries.__ No one __else can do it, no one else wants to do it__ I suppose__, and he doesn't trust anyone else anyway__, not even the team__ Well he tells them some stuff but never does he completely open up to them like he does with me. __ It makes me feel lik__e I really am somebody when Kai and I__ talk__ to each other__Because it's like he needs me. And he wants me around. __It's as though I'm not worthless in anyway. __On the days when I feel like the world hates me and all I want t__o do is die, there's always Kai right there for me__. Sometimes he doesn't talk. Just sits down beside me and holds me. Sometimes he doesn't even do that. He doesn't __always __need to.__ I feel stupid when I complain that he doesn't give me enough attention…because now if I think about it, maybe he gives me more than I actually deserve.' _

Tori's thoughts were just filled with compliments and hope. All her thoughts of him were based on love, no matter how upset she'd ever gotten with him. As just about everything else, Kai's thoughts weren't the same thing. While he still loved her, all his thoughts of her were based on his surprise of her.

_'I'll admit…I never did understand love and I still don't. Being with Tori for almost two years makes me feel loved, that's true, but sometimes I still don't know what the reaction of a loved one would be to something. Even when I've thought that I've learnt everything about her to anticipate her reaction to something I find I'__m always surprised by what she does. I don't understand why she cries so much at the thought of me being ill, I know she cares but I don't understand why she has to cry so much for it. I don't understand why her feelings for me are so strong. I think I'd have the same reaction for her if I knew she was really ill again, I almost did last time, who's to say it won't happen again? Still, when it's me worrying about her I feel __its__ different. __**She**__say's__ it's because I have no self-worth but I don't know. Is it true that because I don't think so highly of myself that I think she shouldn't worry about me? Is it really fair that I ask her not to worry about me, even though she feels she needs to?__ Who am I to tell her to stop feeling the way she does?__'_

Anyone who knew the couple would wonder where all their happy memories had gone. They hadn't gone anywhere. The two both thought about their best times together in their lives. They didn't always act the same way they did back then but they didn't have to as long as they both kept the relationship fresh and thought back to some of their best moments. Thinking and recollecting with one another was all they really needed to keep their relationship together. Their relationship was always the same anyway, they'd hurt each other but then finally take a moment to apologize to each other or something of the sort and they'd share a quiet moment together. It was always like that, from the very beginning when they were just friends, and they preferred things that way.

_**---Flashbacks---**_

_Tori sat on the sofa next to Kai with a sigh, looking up at him a bit while he stared at the ground. She looked up at him strangely, cocking her head to the side a bit; a pout on her face as she tried to understand what was going on. "Did I miss something important?" She broke the silence in the room._

_Kai looked at her quickly, eyes holding a bit of confusion. "No, sorry, just spaced out for a minute."_

_"Something's wrong?" Tori asked quietly, moving closer._

_"No, nothing.__ Trust me, I would have told you by now."_

_"After today, I'd hope so." Tori nodded in agreement._

_Kai didn't comment on that, just kept staring in front of him for a bit and not taking much more interest to the girl who sat worriedly beside him._

_"Kai…I'm really sorry for what I did to you today."_

_"It doesn't matter." __Came__ Kai's honest answer._

_"Are you sure?"_

_"Yeah, I'm sure."_

_Tori sighed a bit. Her arm went across his stomach and stroked his bare shoulder with the back of her fingers, her warm skin against his cold pale one. Chills ran quickly down Kai's spine at that touch, his shoulders particularly sensitive after all the abuse he put them through back when he used to cut them up. The young girl grew tired, Kai noticing he pulled an arm around her and let her rest against him. Her soothing strokes continued subconsciously till she fell asleep when her hand fell away completely._

_Kai just sat there for a few minutes, sometimes glancing down at the girl, making sure she was comfortable. Resting his head back and in a couple of minutes he joined her in sleeping, a peaceful sleep on the most part._

_**---End Flashback---**_

The young girl parted her lips softly as though she were about to speak, hesitance which caused Kai to hold his breath as though anticipating she were going to leave him or something. "I don't want to lose you…do you hear me?"

To those words Kai would have argued that she wasn't going to lose him, then remembering that those were the words that had brought him into this mess in the first place. Instead he just placed his hand out to her, touching her hand with some care and gripping it with the strength he had left before nodding. _'If she keeps on worrying like this, she's going to make herself more ill than she's ever been, I can't keep letting her do this to herself. I can't even ask her to stop.'_

"Stop that." Tori bit out rudely, closing her eyes.

Some surprise took over Kai's face, "What?" he asked her confusedly.

She exhaled once again to calm herself enough to give him a decent reply, "Every time you get that same look on your face you're thinking badly about something. Stop it, it isn't healthy for you to think about everything negatively." She turned over onto her back, staring up at the ceiling with sparkling eyes that reflected her thoughts, "I can't say I'm perfect…my thoughts can sometimes be more negative than yours."

Kai scooted a little closer, wrapping an arm around her waist, "Stop talking."

"What?" Tori asked with a pout.

Kai moved them both closer together, resting his head comfortably on his arm, "Just stop talking. You depress yourself whenever you start talking like this."

The auburn-haired girl turned over, smiling softly and nodding, "For that…I'm sorry." She apologized.

Kai gripped the back of her shirt tightly in his hands, "Stop being sorry for these things."

"So what do I do?"

"Just…stop talking."

Tori nestled closer to Kai and his warm and caring embrace, "Fine…" she gave in softly, "But just for a few minutes…asking me to stop talking is like asking you not to be grumpy."

Kai pinched her back lightly, rolling her eyes, "You never change." He mumbled in her ear.

"Same to you." She pulled the covers over them and opened her eyes again, "Don't ever change, just learn to listen when I tell you things for your own good." She didn't get any sign of actual listening from Kai, he didn't do anything, just suddenly closing his eyes. She exhaled softly, this time not out of frustration but just out of the need to do so. She leant forward; gently setting her soft lips on his own for a mere second. She moved away while she took a shaky breath, still recovering from the whole nights crying as she dropped her head back down onto the pillow. "How did we get to this point, being in an opposites-attract relationship?" she asked him.

"You agreed not to talk." Kai reminded her.

"Kai…" She whispered in a soft tone.

He still kept his eyes closed but acknowledged, "Hm?"

"I love you."

Kai smirked at the innocence in her voice, he tugged her a little closer and stroked the small of her back in a caring and soothing manner. He didn't have to say anything back. With anyone else he'd be forced to, but when the person he was with understood him so well, they knew what he was thinking so that he wouldn't have to say it. By now, Tori knew Kai long enough to know what most of his actions meant and this quiet moment was his reply to her words.

**A/N: So this is another chapter. I think I made a bit of a mess of it, especially since I had trouble writing. I had a bit of writers block and after about an hour of staring at a blank page the chapter began writing itself and this is the end product. This chapter had a whole new approach to it; it was a lot more thoughts, reactions and realizations rather than actual scenes and recalling to third parties. I like that sense of style but since it was my first time writing a lot more thoughts than scenes I'm not sure how good I am at it. ****Please leave me a review and let me know what you thought. I'm hoping to do better writing on next chapter but please forgive me if I take a while, school is a murderer. **

**Ah, ****ja**** ne ****minna**


	5. Best Friends

_**Chapter 5**_

Within hours you could almost say that things in the apartment had all gone back to normal, as normal as that whole apartment and its habitants were. Tori was pulling her hair back into a bun as she walked down the hall, stopping in front of the bathroom door and sighing. The two had fallen asleep again later and Kai had disappeared from her side before she'd woken up. "Good morning, Kai." She called in a slightly upset tone, being greeted by the terrible sound of Kai losing his last meal, whenever that had been. The auburn-haired girl exhaled at the sound of it, turning and walking down the hall to the kitchen, "Oh the sweet sounds of vomiting in the morning." She murmured with plenty of sarcasm.

She spent quiet moments by herself, preparing some tea for herself and some coffee for Kai. He'd walked in right after it was done, looking paler and sicker than he had been in a while, sitting down abruptly at the kitchen table. "Thanks." Was the word that just passed his parched lips when she'd set the mug of hot coffee down in front of him.

With some uncertainty of the whole situation between them, Tori placed a gentle hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, stroking the bare skin softly in a soothing manner, "How are you feeling?" she whispered.

"Hold off the worrying for a while, would you?" Tori walked away from him to the other side of the room at the sound of his harsh words again, resting the small of her back against the edge of the kitchen counter as she crossed her arms and stared at the white tiled floors for a few more silent moments. Kai's eyes moved off his coffee and glanced up at her upon realizing the silence that had fallen between them, "I'll be at a doctor within a couple of hours, so for now there's no sense in worrying."

Tori looked up at him as he'd begun his words, having felt his gaze on her, she huffed and crossed her arms, "You don't understand a persons feelings at all." She stated coldly.

Kai nodded, turning to her completely, "That's probably true." He agreed. "But there should be no harm in asking you to relax. Especially since the request you're being asked of is coming from someone who apparently doesn't know better."

Tori pushed herself away from the counter and moved close to him, resting a hand on his heating cheek. "I guess you're right." She knelt down to his height as he'd been sitting, he'd been wincing slightly on occasions and she exhaled, "Maybe you're pregnant." She joked, actually looking serious for affect.

Kai glared and groaned, "That's insulting." He bit out, his glare increasing a bit.

She stood, "Oh don't be so bitter, you know men can't get pregnant."

The Russian hadn't broken his glare, even by her words and adding, "That's not the insulting part. The insulting part is that you're actually implying I've slept with someone."

Tori smiled and wrapped her arms around the boy's neck from behind him, kissing him on the cheek softly, "I didn't mean it like that and you know it." She heard the older boy sneer quietly and she tugged at him slightly, "I mean that. You're being really sweet and patient with me, why would I take advantage of that?"

Kai glanced at her, fake questioning in his eyes, "You like to make me uncomfortable?" he asked stupidly.

Tori laughed and smiled softly, then standing back up straight and walking to the doorway, "Yes well, if you ever want to get past cuddling then go to a doctor."

The Russian knew there was no point calling after her that he was going to do just that, she knew by now but she'd probably just repeated it to make sure that he listened to her. She always had to remind him of things. It had been like that all the time for the past two years, she reminded him to eat something, reminded him to take painkillers when he needed them, reminded him when his appointments were, reminded him of friends birthdays and such. She was like a human day-planner. All he could do now though is allow himself to drop his head onto the table, hoping to enjoy the apartment's silence for just a moment.

**---Later---**

Tori sighed, standing in the door way, "Ouch." Max groaned, collapsing onto the bed.

"Ouch is right." Tyson second, lying beside him.

Tori groaned and rolled her eyes, watching Ray sit back into an armchair, "I don't understand how you're all so lazy, I used to go through this training every single day and Kai did too. It's only the three of you that seem to have the problem with it."

"But _we're_ human!" Tyson called out, muffled by his mouth buried in the pillow.

"Hey! You have two more hours of training left, be thankful I'm letting you stop here for today."

Ray mumbled something breathlessly, then hearing Tyson mumbling something of his own, "Shut up Tyson or you'll kill us all." He ordered him exhaustedly.

The auburn-haired girl sighed and sat down on the ground, "It's only 3pm, you mean to tell me you three are just going to lie in here for the rest of the evening?"

"Yes!" They all shouted in unison, Tori covering her ears at the demanding shout.

"Should've seen that one coming." She mumbled to herself, "I don't see why you're so tired, it wasn't all that bad to me, clearly you all think otherwise."

"Don't you think you've been pushing us a little too much…even if just a little?" Ray asked, holding his finger just millimeters away from his thumb.

"Yeah and all you do is watch us practice…it's not like you actually do it all so that's why it doesn't seem so bad to you." Max pointed out hurriedly, for actually the fifth time that day.

Tori sighed, getting up and collapsing on the bed in the middle of the two usually-hyper boy, "I'm sorry guys….I have a lot on my mind, maybe I didn't realize how harsh I've been."

Tyson and Max exchanged suspicious glances with each other, then both looking at the girl, "Kai?" the blonde asked her quietly, feeling compassionate as he now believed that the two were no longer an item.

"Obviously." Tori groaned with discomfort, turning over onto her stomach. "He actually went to the doctor today…he said he was going to call within an hour to tell me how things went but it's been almost two and a half hours."

Tyson sighed very vaguely with some relief, "Maybe he's running a bit late…you know how those hospitals are."

"Yeah I know what you mean but still…it shouldn't be taking _this_ long." She sighed heavily for another time, "Besides, the guy made an appointment about an hour before so if they knew they were going to be packed they wouldn't have made the appointment in the first place." She placed a hand to her pocket, then not feeling her phone there, "Wait…where's my phone?" she asked with alarm evident in her voice, sitting up hurriedly.

"Last I saw it; I think it was on the kitchen table." Ray thought aloud.

Tori's bright brown eyes widened and she looked at him with disbelief, "And you let me leave it there?" she asked, rushing out of the room and down the stairs.

"At least I didn't let Tyson eat it." Ray murmured with exhaustion, holding his head in his hands.

"Guys!" Tori called from downstairs, stomping hurriedly up the steps and hanging on to the door as she peered in, "Kai's going in for an appendectomy."

"What?!"

The auburn haired girl shook her head, worry evident on her face as tears had sprung into her eyes, "Turns out the guy was a lot more sick than we both thought. I don't know about you guys, but I have the strength to run there to see him."

Tyson pulled the phone out of Tori's slightly shaking hand and looked at the text from their team captain, "This was sent almost ten minutes ago, he's probably already in surgery."

Tori rushed down the stairs and the other three followed behind her, all watching her put on her jacket and pick up her backpack, "Kai hates hospitals…" she murmured more to herself than the others, "Like hell am I letting him wake up to an empty hospital room after surgery." She walked out into the Dojo's front yard, then turning to them, "So are you three coming or not? I'm sure he'd love the company when he wakes up."

Ray shook his head a bit and picked up the pile of jackets by the door, passing them over to their owners, "Or maybe he'd want to kill us but either way, we're going to be there for him."

"Yeah, we don't want him to be all alone." Max agreed, smiling softly as he followed the girl. As they all walked with a quick pace towards the hospital, Max, being the closes to the girl, gently grabbed her hand and got her attention, "You think he'll be okay?"

"Physically…he'll be fine, he's usually a fast healer. Emotionally…we'll make sure he'll be fine."

Of the whole group, Max and Tori were the ones that where closest to Kai. Tori was there for Kai through everything that ever happened, he told her just about everything, sooner or later at least. And Max was a very close second. Anyone would expect it to be Ray for his maturity and such but Ray was one to worry in such a way that he'd tell Tyson and Max possible ways of making Kai feel better and the captain hadn't wanted that. Tori and Max were close in character at times, both were very hyperactive, fun but kind and trusting individuals and at the end of the day, that really was what Kai had needed.

"This is the thing that gets me…" Tori's frustration emitting in her voice, "I've seen and met a lot of appendicitis patients…they're all in agony all the way till they get to surgery. I can't believe that Kai's strength made us think it was something minor than that. After knowing him for so long we should've known better than to let his strength get the better of us."

"We couldn't have been able to tell, there's nothing we could've done." Max consoled her, squeezing her hand.

"Are you sure about that?" He gave her a look that answered her question well enough so she remained silent as they arrived at the hospital. While she left the others to ask a nurse for Kai and details about what was going on, she remained quiet and seemingly hiding from the doctors that past by her. If it were an option, she wouldn't see any of the doctors that had ever treated her while she had her brain tumor. The four of them just waited impatiently in Kai's assigned room, waiting for Kai to come out of his surgery, all of them trying to comfort each other as time past by and their worry for their captain increased.

At the same time, Tyson was curious to see how much the girl would care for their said captain; wondering if she'd show any sign of still being with their friend or not. He figured that it was pain on both of their behalves that had brought the two together in the first place and he wanted to see if that's what it'd be to get them back together.

Tori had finally fallen asleep on Max's shoulder, Kai having been brought into the room without her knowing it. Max watched Kai intently, wondering so many things, like why he still kept such pain hidden from them. Tyson and Ray stayed closest to Kai's bed, Max would've joined them but he didn't want to move the girl so as not to wake her up from some sleep she'd probably desperately needed. He too had begun to grow tired too but he could note Tyson and Ray sharing a few words before both stood up. Ray moved over to Tori and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, leave her alone Ray, she's tired." Max whispered in a complaining tone.

It was a little too late, Tori had woken up to the sight of Ray close in front of her, "Hey, come on, he's fine so let's go for tonight. Let's go home and get some sleep and see him in the morning." He told her, tapping at her arm to get her up.

Tori wiped sleep out of her eyes and looked past the neko-jin to look at her boyfriend who was drained of all possible energy. She shook her head determinedly, "No way, I'm staying here." She protested in a whisper.

"Well we're going for the night." Tyson informed her.

To a degree the girl felt a little angered, after all Kai did for all of them they were just getting up and leaving, was she really the only person that cared about how Kai felt when he woke up? "Sure…See you tomorrow." She replied, no evidence of frustration whatsoever. She saw the two leaving soon enough, being unable to fully hear their words to her before they departed, having been focusing more on Kai than anyone else. Then she saw the blonde getting up from beside her and walking to the door which had surprised her quite a lot, "You too Max?" she asked a little disappointedly.

The usually-hyper blonde turned round and smiled brightly at the girl, shaking his head, "Course not; I'm going down the hall to get you some coffee and something to eat."

Tori smiled softly at the boy's consideration, "Don't forget the chocolate, kay?" she asked with a playfully smile, receiving a quick nod before the boy ran down out of the room. With some exhaustion she got out of her chair and walked over to Kai's bed, smiling extremely faintly. She sat down on the bed, picking up his hand off the sheets and lightly brushing her thumb over the slightly bruised knuckles. He wasn't going to like having to be in the hospital for a while, that much she knew but she couldn't allow him to manipulate her again into believing that he was perfectly fine. She was undeniably worried about the boy's health by now, partly still not forgiving herself for not recognizing something this serious sooner. Appendectomy's were standard procedure, they almost happened every day but it was still serious…what if Kai's appendix had burst? He would've died instantly. What still amazed her was that Kai had handled his pain so well, she knew plenty of patients that had suffered from appendicitis and they were always suffering so how did Kai handle it for so long?

She knew it was difficult for him and that he took constant breaks of some kind and he always did complain about the pain but it never quite happened that he was in so much pain he wanted to have it checked out. She'd begun to think that no pain in the world would bring him to do such a thing. She placed a hand on the boy's stomach, feeling the many layers there were over his new wound. Another scar for him to cover up. She could feel so many layers covering it, probably tones of cloth and gauze over the open wound, the countless blankets and quilt that covered him warmly. He looked peacefully as he always did when he slept, she loved watching him when he was like this. It showed his innocence and vulnerability for a few hours each day and she liked seeing that side of him sometimes. Then recently she barely got to see that side of him, having only seen the pained expression etched into his face every night from his now-known swollen appendix.

She leaned over him a little, squeezing his hand lightly in hers then giving him a quick peck on the cheek. She sat back in the chair that Tyson had been in earlier, resting both her forearms and head on the side of the bed, "You had better be okay." She murmured quietly to herself.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Young Tori turned over uncomfortably in the hospital bed, from one side to the next in a matter of seconds. She huffed with frustration, shoving the thick blankets off her frail young body. She ran her hands along her sides and stomach, almost feeling the bones poking through her skin. She huffed again, lying down upside down in bed, resting her head on the quilt and kicking the pillow off the bed with her feet, changing positions constantly to resting her head on her arms and such. After a while she stopped struggling, lying there and staring out the window at the peaceful bright white moon shining outside. _

_It gave her room a beautiful but eerie glow to it. In the bit of light she glanced around after a while, then running her long skinny fingers through her auburn hair. Locks of hair caught between her fingers and pulled right out of her head effortlessly. She sat up in a hurry, running her hands through her hair repetitively as she breathed heavily. She threw it all to the ground in a blind panic, staggering out of bed as she ran out of her bedroom and down the hall. She breathlessly ran up a flight of stairs, gripping and hauling herself off one of the steps as she'd staggered up them weakly. She beat hard onto the handle of the door to push it open, running outside onto the roof and collapsing on her knees outside in the cool night air under the shining moonlight. _

_**---End Flashback---**_

She sat up in a hurry, a loud gasp escaping her lips. She looked around the room, seeing things as they were just when she'd fallen asleep. Max had just walked in though, standing by her side with a hand on her shoulder, "Bad dream?" he asked her, sitting down in the chair beside her.

"Kinda." She replied, appreciatively taking the hot coffee from him and sipping it quietly.

Max sat back in his seat, sighing quietly, "I spoke to a doctor on the way in here…he said Kai will be perfectly fine but it takes about three weeks for appendicitis patients to recover but it depends on how long it takes them to heal at all. Either way, Kai isn't going to like being stuck in the hospital within that time."

Tori squeezed Kai's hand tighter in her own, sipping her coffee for a second before nodding, "Yeah, I know that." She placed the mug of coffee back down and moved closer to Kai, brushing her thumbs lightly over the bruised skin of Kai's hands. "But…my Kai is strong, he can handle it." She reassured, both herself and the teen.

"_My_ Kai? It means you two are still together right?" Max asked, partly a little hesitantly while suddenly relieved to have asked her about it.

Tori furrowed her eyebrows at that and looked at him strangely, "Of course. What makes you think otherwise?"

"Ah it's nothing, just some stuff Tyson's been saying." Max brushed it off hurriedly, pretending there wasn't anything left to say.

Tori raised an eyebrow, leaning a little closer to him, "Tell me…what's Tyson been saying this time?"

The blonde looked away from her, shifting very slightly with some discomfort under her playful questioning gaze. He replied a little hesitantly, "Well…he's pointed out how you two have been fighting a lot more…and that you don't show him as much sympathy as you used to."

All she really could do at the time was laugh quietly, turning away from him and sitting back comfortably, "That has nothing to do with it." She smirked a bit once it settled in, "Don't tell him or Ray how wrong they are…I want to take advantage of the fact that they're assuming things and spreading rumors again without consulting Kai or me. I can't say it'll be fun because I can't be bothered to actually make it funny but you know? It'll be good to see the look on his face when I tell him how wrong he is." She turned to him and gave him a light honest smile, then wrapping an arm over the boy's shoulders and tugging lightly at him, "Now, try to get some rest, you look like you've been denying yourself some sleep for hours."

Max smiled brightly as he always did, despite the tiredness he held in his eyes and in his slumped form, "Wake me up when Kai does, okay?"

She laughed and nodded, tugging at him again while taking in the sight of her sleeping boyfriend again, "He's knocked out, you've got a few hours I think." She allowed the boy to rest on her shoulder a bit, holding onto him kindly and stroking his arm into a calming sleep. She knew well enough that Max was just as worried as she was, these were the times they were there for each other and their friendship grew all the more.

**A/N: Crappy chapter I know I know. It was just so difficult to write recently. I hope it wasn't all too bad. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Take care!**


	6. What If

_**Chapter 6**_

_**---Next Morning---**_

Kai grumbled quietly to himself, shifting his body constantly beneath the covers and tiredly brushing sleep out of his eyes almost every minute, "I'm not being very good company today, am I?" he asked, a vague smirk on his features as he winced and moved again.

Tori stood up, getting out of the comfortable chair she'd spent her last few hours in, moving over to him and fixing the pillows with a light smile on her face, "You're still weak; you're not _supposed_ to be good company." She stood there and watched him continue to shift his body from one part of the bed to the other, sighing softly, "Stop moving and lie still or you'll never get better." She scolded like an over-protective mother.

"You still haven't answered any of my questions." Kai pointed out softly, his eyelids fluttering closed, "Like, when am I getting out of here?"

Tori maintained the smile on her face as she walked back to her seat, "I haven't answered your questions yet because I don't want you to get stressed out." She glanced down at the bright white tiled ground beneath her for a moment of thought, a quick saddening glint flashing in her eye before it was replaced again and she looked back up at him, "The last thing you need is more stress, you're not going to fool me with that 'I'm fine' anymore and I'm going to be a lot more tough on you about getting checked out more often."

The Russian wasn't in the mood for that conversation, figuring it'd only either anger him, or anger his girlfriend. He smirked a bit instead, then opening his eyes again and turning his head to look at her through the blurring vision, "You haven't answered my question, how long am I going to be in here for?"

Her eyes darted to the ground where she could avoid his weak gaze which would make her defenseless and vulnerable to his insistence that he were fine. "A week, maybe two. Appendicitis takes three weeks to recover from, since it was at a serious stage they've got to keep you here for most of that time."

Kai turned his head away from her and to look to the other side of the room, trying hard to suppress any emotion that could either make him feel worse than he already did. "Please be joking." He murmured repetitively, a bit more to himself than to the other.

"I'm not joking." Tori said hurriedly, having known Kai well enough to know what he'd mumbled. "You don't realize how bad all this was, you actually could've died but you're looking at this like it's nothing. If _I _had these kinds of views about _my _health then you would've killed me by now."

The boy turned his head to look at her hurriedly again, vision blurring all the more but him uncaring of his whole state, "Hello…you _did _have these kinds of views about your health."

The auburn-haired girl stood back up and walked over to him, pouting as she glared down at him, "Well…I wouldn't have had those views if I'd known I was going to meet you, let alone fall in love."

"At least we're both in the wrong then."

She smirked sweetly, brushing his hair back from his swear-soaked forehead, "That we are." She agreed, leaning a little closer, "Have I told you yet how much your text worried me?"

He tried hard to stifle back a small laugh, this time for the sake of the pain in his stomach rather than his pride, "About four times already." He turned his head away from her again, staring at the opposite wall so the one that he cared about so much partially didn't look into his eyes like she usually did, "Please don't worry about me so much…" he spoke out a little brokenly. He could tell that his words had upset the girl a bit, having realized it more after she turned his head back to look at her by his chin.

She let go, walking to the foot of the bed and crossing her arms, "Maybe if I'd been a little kinder in the way I spoke to you while you were ill, maybe this wouldn't have been so tough on you."

"Don't start with that." Kai groaned, moving his form under the thick blankets, still trying to find a comfortable position to lie in.

"Well it's true, isn't it? Maybe if I'd been a little more considerate and all then maybe this wouldn't have happened."

"It would have…and by now you should know that." Kai bit back angrily.

Taking a deep breath, her eyes drew shut and she put her head back to direct towards the ceiling, "It's so painfully difficult to watch you like this…"

Kai's head spun to look in her direction, and all that shone in his eyes was a strong form of anger, "Then don't watch! Go home and let me get through the next few days by myself, I already told you to and I told you that the first thing when I woke up."

"Is that really how highly you think of me? That I'd just leave you here when I know how much you hate being in these places in the first place?" Tears had sprung to her eyes, hence why she'd kept them closed for so long, "That really is a new level of cold-heartedness Kai, even for you."

"You're the one who doesn't want to see me this way…I'm just giving you the best solution I've got."

"When you know that I can't do what you're asking for? That's still unfair."

It was as though they were starting the same argument over and over again, like every time they buried it somehow or another it found a way to resurface. Kai glanced in her direction for a split second, then turning his head away from her again to avoid anymore eye contact with her. He could barely focus his blurring vision any more, it just continued to be obscured by white and black blotches, lucky for him there was no way possible that it could affect his speech, "We're doing it again, aren't we?"

She'd been caught off guard, all emotions she was feeling pausing for just a moment to think unmistakably, "I suppose we are." She admitted finally, smiling vaguely, "We really have become idiots haven't we?"

He accepted her sudden humor; he couldn't say he didn't need it at the time. He shrugged slightly to her comment, trying a small smile of his own, "I don't know…they say that arguing is healthy."

Tori walked over to the side of the bed, picking up his hand again, "That must mean we've got one hell of a healthy relationship, huh?" she got a light nod and laugh as a reply and even that made a few thoughts run through her mind, "We're such idiots sometimes, we keep starting over all the time…and not in the good way."

Kai just grunted quietly, squeezing her hand back with little strength, "Let's just save the arguments for another time…like when I can actually walk out of the room if I get fed up."

Tori pulled her hand out from his, rolling her eyes and going back to her chair, "You're unbelievable." She sighed quietly and constantly keep her bright brown eyes on him, keeping him in her heart and mind, "You…better brace yourself, the others said they'd be here in about half an hour."

"Then call a doctor for me." The Russian male said in a grumbling tone.

The auburn-haired girl tilted her head to the side confusedly, a pout taking on her features, "How come?" she asked sweetly.

He couldn't help but smile, he found her innocence and naivety quite cute at times. Better yet, she made an excellent distraction from pain but hardly ever good enough of a distraction when the others were around, "Because they can give me plenty of morphine. If I'm going to be stuck in bed and with them here too, I'll really need it." He could hear that his words caused a quiet uncontrollable laugh from the other person in the room, he didn't look back at her though, the laughter was enough for him to believe that for now their arguments were over.

"I'll defend you, I promise." Tori quipped in a childish tone of voice.

"Kai!!" An overly-hyperactive Max shouted, running into the room upon having heard from a nurse that Kai was awake, the other two male bladers following not too far behind. Almost immediately, Kai had placed a weak hand to his forehead but Max hadn't seemed to have noticed how loud he actually was, "How are you feeling?" was his question, having calmed down ever so slightly.

"Fantastic." Kai replied sarcastically.

"Good to see that in losing your appendix you didn't lose your sarcasm, Kai." Ray smiled at his captain, taking a seat at the foot of the bed.

"Nothing would make Kai lose his sarcasm; it'd take so much more than appendicitis at least." Tyson added.

Max hardly ever took part in the teasing comments that Tyson and Ray had for Kai, so just opted to change the subject, "So how long are you going to be in here for?"

"You make it sound as though he's in prison." Tori laughed at the way the question had been asked.

"It's as though I _am_ in prison." Kai murmured to himself, then answering Max's question, "Sunshine in the corner over there said three weeks but up until now I'm still hoping it was just a sick joke." He shifted once again uncomfortably beneath the heavy warm covers, feeling sparks of pain in his side which made it difficult to just lie there and do nothing, his actions though made Ray slowly get off the bed and look at him with some realization on his features.

"By the looks of it, she's probably serious."

Tori nodded and got up, walking over to the bed and standing next to the rest of them, "That's because I _was_ serious, the only training Kai has for the next three weeks is the training of his patience." She saw Kai groan, wincing and shifting uncomfortably again, "Don't worry Kai…" she smiled rather mischievously, "we'll come visit you, every single day for the next three weeks." In her sweet but teasing voice at her fake attempt to make him feel better.

"Stop that." Kai sighed, a bit frustrated at the situation he'd been put into.

Tori pouted childishly again, looking on with innocence sparkling in her beautiful brown eyes, "I'm just trying to make you feel better."

"You two really are the weirdest couple I've ever seen."

Said couple just nodded silently at that, not looking at each other either, Tori then smiling and turning towards her bag, "I'm going to go get something to eat, I'll be back a little later."

"Traitor, so much for protecting me from you guys." Something Kai hated more than hospitals, was being stuck in one with people who would just irritate him at times and people he occasionally needed breaks from. "Shouldn't the three of you be training anyway?"

"Training can wait and you know it." Ray replied in a slightly angry voice, finding it irritating that their friend really didn't want them there at all.

Max smiled in Kai's direction, hoping that his actions would be even slightly helpful to his friend, "Yeah, let's stay here and keep you company for a while, Kai."

It really wasn't that he didn't want them there because they'd bug him or anything. The problem of them staying was just that he didn't want to be so disappointing to them, he wanted to be strong again but it'd be a while till that happened again. At the same time, he wasn't at all good company, something he was sure he'd stated to Tori earlier. "And so who's going to keep _you_ company?"

"We'll be fine Kai."

Uncertainly, the Russian tried to shift his body weight again to get comfortable, shutting his eyes out of exhaustion and trying to will himself into a comforting and painless sleep so he could hopefully pass some of the time that he was forced to spend there. The others had probably noticed his tiredness and he'd heard them move over to one corner of the room and just sit and talk there for a while. At the same time, he constantly felt the blonde's bright blue eyes watching him again. He wasn't sure which blader could always see through him fastest, whether it was Max or Ray.

Ray had his maturity which allowed him to deal with everything, he was able to tell when someone else of almost as much maturity was trying to hide something from him. Max on the other hand was rather the opposite and had a childish sensitivity to these things, he was just so sensitive to pain that if he knew a person he could point out exactly when they were upset.

At the moment, the blonde hadn't been entirely sure of how his friend was but by the way Tori had been acting, it was as though there was something that was going to happen that they should be afraid of or look out for. Now it seemed like he just wanted to help both his friends. He knew that the two hadn't broken up, and that was a great thing because it was something he'd been worried about. He wanted Tori not to worry so much anymore, and at the same time he wanted Kai to feel better. Obviously their captain would keep shrugging off their help for as long as he possibly could but he never wanted to stop trying to help. He assumed that that was the way Tori had gotten through to Kai; because of her stubbornness, she never gave up on trying to get through to him. She used to push him hard but she never over did it to a damaging extent because that was something that would have just pushed Kai away more.

All this Max knew from the few years he had with getting to know his captain and getting to know Tori probably helped him understand his captain a lot better. That didn't mean that without Tori they never would've gotten through to Kai, it just meant that she'd sped up the process a bit.

Kai had just wanted to fall asleep. He knew there was some more extra worry coming from his over-protective girlfriend that just wasn't normal to him and he could sense it from her more than easily. He intended on asking her about it, but he definitely didn't want to do so while his friends were there. If it were something serious, which she supposed it would be, then he knew that she wouldn't say anything in front of the others and they'd just nag her to tell them and get agitated by it. If he could, he'd avoid any more arguments with her. So now he just wanted to sleep peacefully until Tori got back, and the others left so he could talk to her about it.

**---With Tori---**

She'd ran to the park not too far away from the hospital as she'd so desperately wanted to get out of the hospital for some fresh air. She sat down abruptly on one of the benches, and her bit-beast, upon realizing that no one else was in the park with them, materialized beside her in a seated position facing her. "You run too fast." She pointed out to her. The auburn-haired girl looked at her blading-partner and glared lightly at her, an answer in itself that only her bit-beast would understand. "So…you're in a mood, what's the matter?"

"Three weeks." Tori mumbled to herself in thought, ignoring her friend. "This is turning out to be such a disaster."

"Kai's a strong person he'll survive a hospital for three weeks. It's not like you'll all be ditching him or something either."

There were no comforting words in what Denzelle had said because when Tori made her mind up about something, it usually stuck, except for the surgery which had taken a lot of convincing and now she'd decided that this was a worrying matter and maybe…just maybe she was right about it. Over the years of her childhood, being stuck in hospitals countless times because of her brain tumor and over those countless years she was able to learn countless lessons so she'd never make the same mistakes. Now was it…that she was meant to sit back and watch Kai make the same mistakes she vowed she'd never make again? It wasn't guaranteed that Kai would make the same mistakes but…when being in a hospital for that long, you sometimes tend to lose sight of yourself or the things you'd usually do.

She sighed lightly, hurriedly bringing herself to stand up again and walk away, "Ahh I just hope he doesn't make the same mistakes that I made." She commented in a complaining tone.

With the same spring in her movement, Denzelle followed her Mistress in a quick pace, calling behind her, "I'd hardly call anything you did in your life a real mistake."

Tori bit down hard on her bottom lip, having stopped for just a second in thought before continuing her brisk walk, "Do you remember what I did in the first week of going to the hospital when I was five?" she asked a little numbly.

She paused for a moment to think, knowing that if her Mistress kept her pace she'd be able to catch up quick enough. "You…" she tried harder to remember that time, finding it a little difficult to separate one hospital visit from another, "Ah! You made friends with…Misaki, that sweet little girl in the same ward as you!"

Brown eyes saddened distantly and in record timing but their owner kept on walking at her usual pace, nothing else in her appearance even hinting at the way she was feeling, "We became such good friends, she was really great and I remember her coming to one of my first treatments with me to keep me company." Her voice was almost completely carried off by the wind, had it not for her bit-beast from having good hearing. "Do you remember what happened later on?"

Said bit-beast sped up a little to catch up to her Mistress again, having heard the question and contemplating while walking instead of standing around and risking getting stuck behind, "She was released from the hospital about two months later." She took the sudden initiative to send herself back to her beyblade, upon having realized something after saying that, _'And she died a month after that. The hospital hadn't let her out because she was better like they'd told you…they'd let her out so she could enjoy her last few months before her body rejected an changes surgery had made to her.' _

'_I'm not saying something like that will happen to Kai. I'm just worried because I know what being stuck in hospitals can do to a person. I know they can change them, they can make them feel lonely and what if Kai's put in the same position I was put in? The guy is a lot more sensitive than anyone else thinks…I don't want to watch the guy get hurt.' _

'_But you'll be there for him…as long as you're there he won't be as lonely and there won't be any reason for him to get hurt.' _That sentence in itself got progressively lower and lower as it developed, realizing that it'd just give her the chance to say something in particular that she didn't want to hear.

'_And what if I'm not there for him? What happens then? All I am is stuck with a hurt friend and guilt that would've already killed me.' _

**A/N: So so so sorry for this being so late but I've got some really important exams in a few months and I've been studying a ton for them and I really want to do well so I haven't had too much time to write. Not to mention, the one week I was going to completely devote myself to my writing my school confiscated my mp4 and mobile and the chapters were on my mp4 so I was unable to get it back for a whole week. Please leave a review and I hope you liked the chapter but let me know what you think.**


	7. From The Ice Of Russia

Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

"Morning sunshine." Tori laughed, watching Kai shift with discomfort beneath the sheets and cursing obscenities beneath his breath. After she'd announced her words, she heard him repeat a loud groan, "Slept well?" he emitted another loud and rather unappreciative groan. "I'll take that as a…no?"

Kai had already been forced into the hospital for a whole week. He'd gone for that whole week without a fight, not that he had much of a choice considering he was always in far too much pain to get out of bed, let alone fight off someone. Sleeping had become as difficult as it used to be when he'd been suffering from his nightmares. Now he was unable to sleep in any position due to the still painful settling in his abdomen. Appendectomy was something that usually healed rather fast but because his appendix had come so close to bursting, further examinations were needed. Not to mention, since it was such an emergency, doctors had been a little less careful with incision and that currently hurt and made every action practically unbearable.

For s whole week now, Tori had been hovering around the hospital for far too long. It wasn't that Kai minded her being around, he just didn't want her to put all her plans on hold just because he was in hospital. He couldn't quite complain to waking up with her there every morning though, it was comforting. Something he'd hated so much was waking up in a hospital alone.

"How much longer till I get out of here again?" Kai asked, wiping at his crimson eyes with the back of his hand.

"Two weeks, maybe a little less." Her skinny fingers moved bangs of hair away from Kai's face, being able to see him more clearly and smiling at him softly. "Come on, it hasn't been so bad, has it?"

"Did you go home to sleep last night?" Ignoring her questions had become Kai's forte by now, especially since he'd had more important questions to ask.

"Of course."

Kai groaned, rolling his eyes, "Then why did I see you asleep in the chair at about three in the morning?" he asked irritably.

Tori was taken a little aback by that, biting down on her bottom lip when she knew he couldn't see her, "You were probably dreaming or something."

"Hadn't I told you that I wanted you to go home and get some sleep last night?" He asked barely audibly as he was still trying to bring himself to wake up.

Tori smiled a little apologetically, dragging her chair closer to Kai's bed, "Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. It wasn't intentional, I fell asleep and then when I woke up it was far too late to go back home." She sat down, resting her head in both her hands on the bed, "You're not mad, are you?"

With a sharp wince, the Russian turned over onto his injured side, "No," he beamed in reply, "But can you please go get yourself something to eat? You're too pale, its starting to get scary."

She seemed to know that it was the least she could do for him so she got up with a very discreet sigh, "Okay, but do you want me to get you anything? You slept through lunch after all."

"It's fine, maybe later." He watched her nod and leave the room, "Thanks!" he called after her, sighing as he realized she surely didn't hear him. He turned over beneath the heavy sheets, staring up at the plain white ceiling, wondering why he saw her so differently lately. He still loved her, there was no doubt about that but to him, she'd been acting differently for some reason. Nothing in particular but he just saw her so differently from the way he used to. She wasn't…distant or anything but whenever he touched her at all she seemed hesitant and that bothered him. They'd never really had any trust issues with each other so he didn't see why she was being like that now.

Her skin tone was a couple of shades lighter too but he had just assumed it was because she was in the hospital all the time and there were things that made her uncomfortable. Or maybe the lighting of the room or something. He was making up a bunch of excuses for almost every little thing. Then there was her weight. He knew she wasn't looking too forward to the idea of eating more to put on weight after she'd had her surgery but she had put on a bit of weight which was great. Now it looked like her weight was going back to how it was long before she had her surgery, like when he first met her. She had been rather strong physically, but her body had also been frail and thin.

The amazing thing was that she hadn't been starving herself or anything of the sort. Quite contrary actually, she'd been eating as much as Tyson, possibly. But of course in a slightly more decent manner. It was like any food she ate, barely ever made any impression on her figure which was surprising.

Speaking of her new and improved diet, she hopped into the room happily before jumping into her seat, a box of nuggets and fries in her hand, "All hail junk food." She praised in between two more fries. She saw him turn his head to glance at her and she pouted slightly, "Oh, you want some?" she asked, moving her food closer to him.

Kai emitted a quiet laugh at that, seeing her acting like a child and currently finding it entertaining, "No…thanks."

"You sure?" She watched him nod finally, shrugging back, "Well okay then, more for me."

Kai turned his head to glance at her again, watching her while she ate and hadn't noticed him staring until two minutes later. She looked up at him, tilting her head to the side with some confusion, her eyes beckoning him to talk. "Have you been alright?" the rather overprotective boyfriend asked.

Tori smiled happily, her eyes brightening, "Of course I have, silly."

"You seem so different." Kai murmured.

Tori was more than half way through her food, placing the rest of it on the nightstand, and moved over to him, climbing up onto the high hospital bed. She leaned over him, giving him a quick kiss on his lips, pulling away with a light smile, "Stop worrying about me right now."

The Russian grumbled quietly beneath his breath, turning his head away from her, "Well someone has to." He added aloud.

"Why are you worried?" She turned a little serious, just a small pang of fear in her heart at the idea that he was onto her.

The team leader bit down on his lip a little, for the first time in a long time seeming a little hesitant to say anything. It wasn't usual that he'd be this careful not to hurt her feelings or something of the sort, he just desperately wanted to avoid an argument with her. Her eyes above his own where the only thing beckoning him to speak from then on, having no other choice but to answer her. "I don't know, maybe it's just me but you seem a little different."

"In a bad way?" She looked a little hurt, an uncontrollable kind of hurt and not her childish hurt.

Kai thought clearly for a moment, and then answering honestly, "It's not bad, just different." He lifted a hand from beneath one of the covers, reaching over and pushing her auburn hair back, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, that's all."

Tori smiled, a forced smile, "Well then you should be okay with the idea that I'm fine." She gave him another peck on the lips before jumping off the bed, grabbing the rest of the food and resuming her place in her chair. "Besides, I thought we agreed we weren't going to worry about each other as much, didn't we?"

With that Kai sat up a little, putting unwanted pressure on both the incision and his aching wrists as he pushed himself up to sit properly, "I know we did but then why are you still here?" he asked, indicating her 6th overnight stay in the hospital room.

She looked up quickly, "I'm not here because I'm worried, I'm here to keep you company!" she told him defensively, although knowing it was far from a good excuse.

"Well…" Kai began with a smirk, "You know what company and I are like together so why don't you go home and get some well-deserved sleep."

"Not until the others get here." Tori said firmly, having heard from Tyson that they weren't going to make it for another hour or so.

"Kai!" A particular blonde team mate shouted happily as he entered the doorway.

Tori turned hurriedly to look at the door, "Huh?" bewilderment shone on her face and shocked eyes.

"I win, now go get some sleep." Kai told her triumphantly.

Tori got up and ran over to Max, "Tyson said you weren't going to be here for another hour!"

Max grinned childishly at her, "No, Tyson said that _he_ wouldn't be here for at least another hour." He continued to watch her, uncontrollably laughing quietly at the look on her face, "He never said anything about me."

"Tori!" Kai called, finally gaining her attention, "Go home and get some sleep…I mean it."

The auburn-haired teenager sighed, moving away from her friend, picking up her backpack and tossing the rest of her food in the bin. "I'll see you later." She left the room a moment later, without a word to her boyfriend but mumbling a quiet, "Bye Maxy." To the blonde by the door.

"What's the matter with her, Kai?" Max asked, taking a peek outside the door to see her storming down the hall.

Kai sighed and moved back down in the bed, rubbing at his face, "I have no idea, I'm still trying to figure her out."

"She just seems a little different lately, doesn't she?"

The Russian turned over onto his side, indicating at the chair for Max to sit down, "That's the thing. There's a difference with her but I can't quite tell what it is. She gets angered a little quicker than she used to, she looks a little weaker too but I'm not sure. Maybe it's just this gloomy hospital making everything to me seem a little different."

"Maybe it's what's making her act that way too." Max tried.

"Being in a hospital?" Kai asked, looking over at the blonde.

Max nodded a little solemnly, "Yeah…I mean think about it, she was stuck inside of one for most of her life and…well…it's not the nicest place in the world to spend the majority of your life time."

Kai groaned, at a loss at what to do, "But I keep telling her to stay home if she doesn't want to be here!"

The blonde laughed softly, "Well Kai, don't you remember how you felt when she was in the hospital? You wanted to be here with her and God knows you don't like to be here either." He heard the other groan another time before retreating beneath a blanket. He couldn't help but laugh, "Face it Kai, you two are so different but so alike."

Kai was far too exhausted to go through a whole conversation, but he was hardly the dating expert so went for any advice his single friend could possibly offer him. He moved out from beneath the covers again, turning over onto the pained side, "So what do I do? I can't let her stay here for the next two weeks and keep letting her make herself miserable."

"You know as well as I do, no matter how much we argue with her, she isn't going to not come to see you so I guess you might as well let her go through with what she wants for these few weeks and then you'll be back home and everything will be back to normal."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, she'll probably be okay once she knows you're perfectly healthy again." He jumped onto the foot of the bed where he could be a little closer to Kai, "We both know well enough Tori's a little paranoid when it comes to health but I don't think we can say we blame her at this point."

"We never gave her any reason not to worry at least." Kai was in fact right about that. No matter what, at least once a year a short hospital visit was required for each team member. It was actually accidental but somehow or another, someone always got even a little bit hurt so Tori always had some reason or another to worry about any one of them. Although, Kai was in fact the common denominator in all those years in any case. Kai took a deep breath, feeling the muscles in his abdomen tightening from the pulling of his skin. "I hope she's okay, that's all."

Max's smile brightened at the sound of that, loving it when he heard straight from Kai how much he cared about his girlfriend, "I'm sure she's fine, she even acts and looks fine during training and by now Denzelle would've told us if she knew something were wrong."

"She didn't tell us in beginning though."

"But neither of them trusted us back then and you know it." Max watched Kai plotting another quick and argumentative reply but Max raised his hand a little while still smiling, "Don't make me act like Ray, I _will_ get a nurse to sedate you, you know?"

Kai rolled his eyes at that, "They won't sedate me just because I'm arguing with you."

Max placed a hand to his head, "Well you still have a record of giving nurses and doctors migraines, I'm sure they won't hesitate very much." He insisted, a smile still on his child-like face.

"Max…" Kai began softly.

"Yes, Kai?" Max asked kindly out of innocence.

"Nothing personal…but you're starting to sound like Tyson, Ray and Tori all mixed into one."

Max laughed a little and got up, moving back to the chair he was in earlier, "Well I'm glad, maybe now I sound a bit more mature like the rest of them."

"Except Tyson of course, right?" The look on Kai's face as he said that made the younger blader laugh more and the sound of it just calmed Kai down a bit. Max was always one to worry when something was wrong with someone but the blonde seemed fine today, self-assured that nothing was wrong with Tori so this soothed Kai, at least for a little while. He relaxed back into the pillows, feeling his exhaustion beginning to take over after a few minutes, "Max…I'll talk to you a little later, alright?"

The blonde understood perfectly that Kai was getting tired, he hadn't been awake for very long and he wasn't under much more medication but Kai was still having trouble adjusting to the wound, waking up at all hours of the night feeling ill and just in general being in an environment he wasn't entirely comfortable with.

**--Two Weeks Later--**

Kai dragged his back pack up the stairs to the apartment door, having insisted that he go home alone. Having heard Kai coming up the stairs, Tori opened the door before he even put the key in the lock, "Hey Kai." She smiled softly, taking his bag from him as he walked inside. "Glad to finally be out?"

The Russian smiled, leaning back against the wall with some exhaustion, "You have no idea." He sighed, wiping his cool hand over his heating face, "Good to be home."

Tori reached up to him and gave him a quick peck on the lips, "Go and make yourself comfortable, I'll put your bag in our room." She swung it over her shoulder and walked down the hall to the bedrooms, feeling Kai watching after her at first.

Kai shook his head with a sigh, he walked into the living room, moving to sit down on the sofa just before he saw two people already sitting there. Both about his age, two people all too familiar to him by now and he was more than happy to see them as the smirk on his face grew just a little but still being overthrown by shock, "Tala? Bryan?"

"Hey, Kai."

This was more than Kai could handle at once, immediately sitting down on the arm of the sofa, "What are you two doing here?"

Bryan smirked slightly from the look on Kai's face at the time, choosing to be the one to reply to his shocked question, "Your girlfriend told us you were in the hospital when we called after you stopped answering out e-mails so we thought we'd come visit."

"We needed a break from Moscow anyway." Tala added, smirking at the look on his ex-teammate's face.

Kai took a deep breath, taking in all the news, "Well…it's great seeing you both here, no doubt about that."

The lavender-haired boy stood up and walked over to the open balcony, starting up a cigarette, "Told you he wouldn't be enthusiastic about the idea." He reminded Tala.

Kai shook his head a bit, _'Same old Bryan.' _He tried a smile towards his friends, it being about three or four years since he last saw them in person. Of course they kept in contact via e-mails and messengers but it wasn't the same as seeing them here in front of him. And all of a sudden too!

Tala stood up, circling the room slowly, "You really meant it when you said you had a nice home here, Kai." He looked at Kai with happiness in his eyes, thrilled that Kai hadn't been faking it when he said that life was going quite well.

Kai's eyes dulled just a little, standing up, his hands firmly dug in his pockets as he stepped closer to Tala, "Why are you really here Tala?" he asked in a whisper, suspecting that this was meant to be a quiet matter.

The red-head turned back a little, looking at his teammate who had drifted outside to sit on the railing while he was smoking so as not to fill the apartment with it. He looked back at Kai, his face having grown solemn and his eyes holding pain, "Tatiana…" he began softly.

"Bryan's girlfriend…right?" Kai very vaguely remembered Tala teasing Bryan about his new affair when they were having an internet call a while back but wasn't quite sure he had gotten the right person in mind.

"Yeah…" He exhaled softly, "She passed away almost a month ago." He placed a silencing hand up so he could finish before Kai began with the questions that were already on the tip of his tongue. "She died of some illness that had been dormant a long time. The funeral was a few weeks ago, Mr. Dickenson flew to Moscow for it because he thought it'd mean something to Bryan at least. Then he saw that Bryan wasn't going to handle things well so he told us that the moment we were ready he'd pay for us to get a flight here so that he could be around friends. Bryan isn't even grieving so I thought that maybe he needed a bit of a change. Mr. Dickenson told me to ask your girlfriend if it was okay if Bryan and I stayed here for the week, if she minded then he'd book us a hotel."

"Well Tori has hardly ever said no to such a thing so I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

Tala nodded, "She's a sweet girl, she said we could stay for as long as we liked, especially if it was okay with you."

Kai took a deep breath, vaguely looking over his friend's shoulder to look at Bryan on the balcony, "You two are like family and you know it and by now, Tori should too so you know I don't mind." He sighed quietly, still staring at Bryan's back, "Should I go talk to him about it or something?" Kai being totally unaccustomed to being able to comfort a friend in these sorts of things, knowing well enough that Tala had a lot more practice at dealing with Bryan.

"That comment I heard from him a few minutes ago before he went outside…that's the first thing he's told me within the past three hours. I tried to talk to him about it on the plane and he stopped talking to me from then on so let's not bring it up for now."

Kai smiled in understanding, nodding, "Alright, keep an eye on him for a few minutes while I go and talk to Tori?" he watched the red-head nod and Kai left the room to go down the hall where he came across his girlfriend in the spare bedroom. "Hey…surprised?" she smiled, turning to her boyfriend as she moved close to his embrace.

"Very, I would have preferred it if you told me though, the look on my face would've been nicer when I saw them."

Tori laughed, "Well they wanted to surprise you too!"

"They really did." Kai nodded, giving her a peck on the lips, "You…heard about Bryan too?" he asked, wanting to make sure so he didn't leave his girlfriend in the dark.

The auburn haired girl's smile faded, nodding back, "Yeah, Tala told me about it a few days ago on the phone. Don't worry, I won't be any trouble while either of them are here, I promise!"

Kai caught both sides of her face cautiously in his hands to calm her, looking down at her with care in his eyes as he shook his head, "I'm not worried about any of that. Just that let's not stress Bryan out for the first few days, Tala and I will probably try to get him talking so until then, just be careful?" she nodded in his hands, one of her soft-skinned hands moving up to catch his own hand before kissing him softly in reassurance. "Thanks for this."

"This means a lot to your friends and I want everything to be okay for them." She seemed so honest, she really was being honest and the look in her eyes reflected that so well. She moved away from him slowly a moment later, smiling as she glanced around the room, "Well they said they won't mind sharing a bed so I changed the sheets, left them towels and put their bags in here so that they'll have everything but if one of them doesn't want to take the bed then I can take the futon out in the living room or…"

Kai grabbed her hand tightly in his, "Relax…" he laughed softly, brushing a thumb against her cheek, seemingly having missed the close contact they were so used to sharing before he had been admitted into the hospital.

"I just want things to be alright, you know? And they don't know me at all so I don't want your friends to think…"

"Tala likes you as it is, he's already said you're such a sweet girl and Bryan…well it's hard to get a positive remark out of Bryan but I'm sure he doesn't think badly of you." He watched Tori pout a bit with uncertainty, "Why don't you go and have a nice warm shower while the three of us catch up? Maybe then we can order in some dinner."

Tori bit down on her lip before releasing it after another moment, "I was thinking of making chicken curry for dinner." She whispered.

Kai pecked at her lips again softly, a small smile on his features, "It's perfect." His right hand ghosted gently over her cold shoulder, "Go and relax." She walked out of the room slowly after that and went to her bedroom to go to the adjoining bathroom to shower and change for dinner. Kai had found it a little funny that his girlfriend was actually worrying about little things like those, barely ever thinking she'd be like that. He made his way back to the living room, Tala standing up instantly when he got there.

"Is she okay? We're not making her feel uncomfortable or something are we?" He was hardly ever one to be so…considerate of people but Kai had to admit that a few years outside of the Abbey and those same few years trying to recover from the pain as a group of friends would make Tala, and possibly even Bryan, more caring and considerate than the Abbey had turned them into.

"She's fine, she was just worrying about what my friends seem to think about my girlfriend." Kai added a quiet laugh to that, sitting down on the sofa, letting his friend join him.

Tala laughed, resting his head back against a pillow which he placed on the back of the sofa, "She seems like a great girl, really polite when I spoke to her on the phone last time, kind enough to tell a taxi to pick us up from the airport, great hospitality from the moment we got in…and she makes you happy and its difficult to argue with someone that makes you happy, Kai." He smiled as he finished, glancing at Kai who was suddenly smiling too.

"Yeah…she makes me happy and she's amazing, really she is." Kai turned to look at his friend after that, watching the boy's face fragile and exhausted. "Are you tired?"

Tala groaned softly, turning his cheek and nuzzling it into the pillow. "You know me, I've always suffered from jetlag."

Kai very vaguely remembered that, then taking another glance in Bryan's direction, "Bryan did too, it was just as common in him as it was in you."

The ex-captain smirked and shook his head, "I don't know much about him now. He was amazing to be around a couple of months ago and then when…she passed, he locked himself up again, not as bad as before obviously but he's back to being quiet."

"Well we know that eventually jetlag will catch up to him if he's still prone to it so we'll deal with it then. Besides, Tori's just going to have a shower and get working on dinner, after that you two can go and sleep for as long as you like."

"And I won't hesitate." Tala laughed quietly.

"I'm going to call Bryan back inside, he's been out there for a while now and he's going to freeze if he stays out there for much longer."

"Freeze, Kai?" Tala asked, raising an eyebrow at his ex-teammate, "We live in Russia, Kai."

The elder boy rolled his eyes at that, walking over to the balcony and sliding it open slowly, "Hey, Bry." He called quietly from the doorway. He didn't get an answer so he walked a little further out, then seeing that the other had headphones on with music blaring heavily from them. Kai purposely knocked one of them out of his ear, gaining his attention, "I said, hey."

"Hey." Bryan pulled both headphones off and put them back in his pocket, butting his cigarette before knocking it off the balcony and into the street.

Kai looked down into the street, watching that cigarette join about six more down on the pavement before turning back to his long time friend, "Are you going to come inside? You've been out here a while now." Bryan wasn't going to reply to that, at all, "Well Tori's making us dinner, you're eating with us, right?" As he began to remember more about the lifestyles of his teammates, he remembered clearly that Bryan never even liked eating around people, assuming that he would've been eating at all at the time.

"Sure," Bryan tried to give a small smile to reassure Kai that he was okay, knowing well that Kai was secretly analyzing him.

Kai began to walk inside, Bryan about to follow him before Kai turned back to him when he stopped, "Bry…about your girlfriend…"

Bryan put up his hand and cut him off, "Kai those words like 'I'm sorry for your loss' don't cut it for me, they don't bring her back so don't bother." He watched Kai about to continue with something on the same subject, "Please?" he gave a stare that was rather blank, some pleading deep in his eyes, "Please? Don't bring it up." He walked past Kai once those words parted from his lips, still giving that same pleading look as he glided past, the look disappearing completely once he entered the living room again and sat down on the sofa.

"Bry…" Tala began to get his lavender-haired friend's attention, "Are you okay?" he saw his friend nod and Tala smiled inwardly, believing that his friend was doing okay at the present time.

Tori had long began cooking dinner, apparently having started it while Kai had been still outside on the balcony with Bryan and after that, it hadn't taken her very long to prepare dinner. She wasn't the best cook in the world, not even close actually. Kai and Tori being well-known for ordering take out almost every night. Thankfully, Tori was more than capable of fixing a few good meals every now again, her mom and dad being doctors and all so take out of any kind was hardly ever an option when she was with them.

After a long and appreciated dinner which was loved by all, the four people were slowly going their separate ways. Tori had gone to bed first, saying that she needed some sleep so that she wouldn't sleep in the next day like she had been all week. Tala had gone to bed next, the jetlag catching up to him so after taking a large bottle of water with him to keep hydrated he went to take an interrupted sleep. Kai and Bryan had gone to bed at the same time, Kai beginning to get tired and not willing to leave Bryan to sit by himself so Kai convinced him to get some sleep, even if just for a few hours.

Apparently those few hours had been up because when Tori woke up at three in the morning for a glass of water she caught sight of him through the kitchen window and saw him out on the balcony, smoking another cigarette no less. She was trying to mentally calculate how many of those she'd actually seen him smoke in the time he was at her apartment. She flexed her fingers, trying hard to control herself, "I said I'd stay out of this." She reminded herself softly. She was about to walk out of the kitchen, then looking back out at him and watching him rest his head on his arm that was on the railing, "But…it wouldn't be wrong if I went out there to see if he needed anything."

She went out into the living room, quietly sliding the balcony door open and stepping outside, pulling her nightgown closer to her body as a cold wind hit her, "Hey, what are you doing awake?" she asked softly, moving to Bryan's side.

Bryan didn't look at her, just staring out into the distance of the furthest buildings, "Tala kept kicking me in his sleep again." He tried to emit a small laugh but it didn't work as his voice had gone silent.

Tori smiled at the sound of his statement though, "Well do you want something? A drink, sleeping pill or something."

"I'm fine, really, but thanks." He really did sound grateful to her, apparently finding it difficult to be rude to someone like her. "Besides, I already slept a good four hours."

"I'll set up place for you to sleep on the couch, just in case you get tired again." She turned to go back inside and practically imitated what happened with Bryan and Kai earlier. She took a short breath, biting down on her lip as she did out of habit, "Bryan…I heard from Tala about what happened with your girlfriend…" she could see his jaw clenching half way through her sentence but she continued anyway, "I'm really sorry about what happened."

Surprisingly, Bryan didn't say the same thing to Tori as he had to Kai, possibly because he knew Kai, and Kai knew that when Bryan was aggressive it was just him defending his emotions but with Tori being a stranger to him, he wasn't sure how she'd take it and he didn't want to hurt her, after all, he was in _her_ house and not Kai's. His features calmed a little as he took his time to turn back to her, then nodding which kept him from saying something he'd regret, like something he'd said to Kai.

He watched her enter the house, and then turning back to look over the balcony again. Seeing the cigarette he'd left their completely gone, he started up a new one, taking a deep breath as he tried to calm all his tense muscles. The very second he tossed it off the balcony to join the others, there was a tap on the doorframe behind him, looking back and seeing Tori standing there. "There are two pillows and some blankets on the couch, try to get some sleep." She saw him nod and suddenly she was getting the biggest déjà-vu of about two years ago when this same thing happened to Kai and her, minus the impulsive smoking though. "Don't stay up too late, good night." She waved and ran in the living room and down the hall to her bedroom to get some sleep of her own.

**A/N: So it's been a while since I've updated but I hope it hasn't been **_**too**_** long. Well I'm hoping that this was a good chapter and you're probably wondering why I got Bryan and Tala into the story. To be honest, with the direction I have for this fic I needed a bit of filler and I was tired of having all the same people I've had in the rest of this fic and the prequel so I thought I'd get someone new in. First I thought I'd just bring in an OC or something but then I remembered that one reader of mine who reads **_**all**_** my writing, is quite the Blitzkrieg Boys fan, especially Tala(this reader in particular should know who she is at least, our stories are usually updated at the same time too). While it seems that this is all about Bryan, rather than Tala, Tala still is going to play a big role while these two are in this story. So bringing in these two probably turned out much better than bringing in an OC so I'm hoping this goes well. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave me a review and let me know. **


	8. Clocks Of Time

Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

Tori stood in front of the kitchen table, a piece of toast in hand as she sorted through her mail that lay sprawled all over the table. She came across one in particular, one she had begun to get more than just frequently and had constantly ignored. She squashed it tightly in her hand, moving over to the kitchen sink and opening the cupboard beneath it that held the bin, tossing the crumpled letter in there and the rest of her toast on top of it. She rinsed her hands and just as she was wiping her hands in a kitchen towel, Kai entered the room, still rubbing some sleep out of his eyes, "Good morning." She greeted him happily.

Kai groaned quietly in response, reaching past her to the counter where his coffee was, where she had made it and left it for him every single morning for the past couple of years. "I saw Tala still in bed, which is expected because he's still suffering from jetlag but…where's Bryan?" he had just a hint of worry in his voice, and Tori didn't find that all too surprising.

The girl's features brightened immensely, placing her index finger to her lips and making a quiet shushing sound before taking Kai's hand and dragging him into the next room. Over there, she gestured to Bryan, curled up into a ball on his side beneath the covers, holding a pillow tightly to him. This seemed adorable to Tori, and while it did make Kai smile a little, on the inside he was saddening. He knew just how broken up inside Bryan was feeling after the loss of his girlfriend, watching him get attached to something even in his sleep, proved that in every day life, Bryan had gotten attached to something else and now that thing was gone, even in his sleep he'd wished that person stayed with him.

"Why's he in here?" Kai asked, trying to divert the attention from his sad thoughts.

Tori hadn't noticed the look in her boyfriend's eyes, just simply answering his question honestly, "Apparently Tala was kicking him in his sleep last night, Bryan couldn't sleep so he went out on the balcony to smoke and I spoke to him when I woke up for a drink. He said he wasn't tired any more, that he'd gotten enough sleep but I thought I should just bring him some sheets and pillows and he could sleep on the sofa if he liked."

"How was he?"

Tori nodded a little, realizing the direction Kai was going with the conversation, Kai probably knowing how well-observant she had become when it came to people, "He was alright, looked pretty relaxed out there, sort of looked like he wanted to kill me when I told him I was sorry for his loss but other than that, he seemed like he was handling things well."

Kai took a last glance at Bryan before walking back into the kitchen, Tori following close behind, "Bryan doesn't handle anything well…he doesn't handle things, at all. Tala said that Bryan's made no real reaction to her death…"

"Well…" She began hesitantly, "It's a grief cycle; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance."

Kai sat down at table, resting back on the legs two hind legs, "Bryan doesn't believe in denial, he always used to yell at us to accept things as they are. He's angry a lot of the time, except now. He completely skips bargaining and he never falls into any depression but Tala and I know his heart and mind are always in that state and then it's like he's moved on right to acceptance."

Tori smiled, walking over to Kai and pushing her hands down on the back of the chair to keep him from swinging back on it, "We can talk about this later, maybe while he's here I can help?"

Kai nodded, glancing up at her, "If Tala and I can't then I just hope that someone can; we can't keep watching him like this."

The auburn-haired girl sat in his lap, resting her head against his chest, "I understand how you feel." She murmured. She looked up at him, trying to force a small smile back onto her features, "But look at it this way, who's the best person in the world who could make a guy cry by using his pain against him?"

Kai smirked, standing up, balancing Tori in his arms with her legs tightly around his waist, "Lord knows you are. I didn't cry for the majority of my life and then being with you…" he held onto her tighter, leaning back against the table with her, "all the emotions came pouring out after so long."

Tori's lips lingered just slightly over Kai's own, "I can't say you haven't done the same." They pressed their lips very slightly together before Kai gently set Tori back onto the ground, "We need more of this later, you know that, don't you?" she raised an eyebrow at him with her statement, knowing fully-well that they had about three weeks of intimacy to catch up on.

"We will." Kai gave her another kiss on the cheek before walking past her, picking up what was left of his coffee and moving to leave the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Tori pouted, walking after him like a little love puppy.

"To give Tala a rude awakening, I know what he's like; he sleeps all day, won't be able to sleep all night and he gets nauseated from the time swap in the morning when he needs to sleep." Kai walked into the spare bedroom, placing the mug on the table by the door before looking up to the bed. Tala was over there, this time trying to sit up, rubbing at his neck, "You alright, Tal?"

The redhead stood up, still rubbing at the muscles between his neck and his shoulder, wincing a little, "Muscles hurt, the usual, don't worry."

Tori bit down hard on her lower lip, unsure whether she should interrupt but decided to do so, "Denzelle's really good at helping tense muscles, if you want I…"

Tala continued rubbing his palm deep into his muscle, wincing uncontrollably, "Don't go through any trouble, I'll be fine in an hour, this happens a lot so I got used to it. It just comes and goes, it's nothing to worry about."

Kai sat down on the bed and glanced at Tori, "Sweetie, why don't you go make Tala some coffee?" he watched her nod and she disappeared promptly, giving him the chance to turn to his friend, "Tal, are you really okay? You're not hiding something from me, are you?"

"I've never heard you sound so caring." Tala informed him, gaining a growl of anger in the back of the other boy's throat, "I'm fine Kai, you know what I've been like lately, I can't…keep things from you."

Kai knew deep down that now, Tala and Bryan only had him. Spencer and Ian were no where to be found, while Bryan and Tala had no family or friends but each other so as of a few months ago, when things had begun to get difficult for Tala at some points, Kai made it clear for him that they were friends, they always had been, and that Tala shouldn't keep secrets from him. As of lately, it seemed to have gotten through to Tala, to Kai's relief.

"While you're here, try to relax as much as you can, you know you've had a tough time dealing with things lately so just consider this a short vacation from the stress." He was hell-bent on making Tala have a good week, just wishing he would've left his pain in Russia so that he could take things easy for now.

Tori entered the room before Tala had a chance to answer him, just nodding appreciatively to Tori once she handed him a cup of coffee. Once silence fell into the room after she'd stepped inside, Tori gestured over her shoulder to the door, "I'm going to go change so you two can talk behind my back." She glanced at Kai, a small smile on her face as she left the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

"I think we're starting to bother her." Tala laughed, taking a sip of his coffee.

Kai shook his head at that, a smirk still playing at his features, "She's not bothered, she hates interrupting things so she always does that when she's trying to find a good excuse to leave." He watched Tala moving in front of the window, still touching his aching muscle and sipping his coffee. "You've got all week to tell me what's the matter, you don't need to say anything now." He got up and walked over to his friend, "I'm sure at least two more hours of sleep won't keep you up tonight so get some rest, we can talk later."

Tala's eyes were stinging painfully, like he were about to cry but his body wouldn't supply him with tears. Instead he just closed his eyes, a serene look on his face, "Thanks for this, Kai." He felt the other's hand move over to his shoulder and touching it gently, just before it slid off again and he walked away, opening the door and leaving the room.

The redhead probably thinking Kai had already left, the older Russian was able to take a glance of Tala resting his forehead against the window frame, he was watching his friend's give up. Extremely quietly, he shut the door to give Tala some time to himself, then going down the hall to his bedroom where he could do the same. He lay down onto his bed, watching Tori step out of the slightly open bathroom while brushing her teeth. She went back in and rinsed her mouth of toothpaste, before stepping back out again, "How is he?"

"Not bad…"

"Can I tell you what I think might be happening?"

Kai smirked, picking Tori up in his strong arms and putting her beside him on the bed, "I will take any ideas I can get right now."

Tori rolled over closer to him, resting her head carefully onto his shoulder, still scared of hurting him after his surgery, "I think…that Tala came here with the intention of helping Bryan, and by making you focus all your attention on Bryan he thinks he'll be able to deal with his own things without you noticing."

"It's understandable but he's not going to manage."

Her eyes had begun to sparkle, possibly with sudden great-admiration for him and his words. She smiled softly, her index finger tracing gentle lines on his arm, "I've never seen you be so protective of people. I know you protect the team, I know you care about them but…I've never seen you put down so much of you to actually talk to them the way I hear you talk to Bryan and Tala."

"You and the team are part of my life at the moment, but they're part of my past." He pulled her a little closer to him, kissing the top of her head, "I was with them when we all went through difficult times in our lives as kids, they've had enough of 'tough love' and being yelled at. That's why I'm…different with them, they wouldn't be able to handle the same attitude I keep with the team."

"I…like your attitude towards them, it's really sweet and…caring, like you really want to help them and anything they're going through."

Kai took a glance down at her while she was saying that, seeing the sweet, impressed and definitely happy look on her face. "You…brought that part out of me, I could still do this before I met you but with you, I guess I got a bit more practice."

Tori giggled, sitting up a little and smiling down at him, "Now aren't you glad that I worry you sometimes?"

"Let's not push it." He couldn't help but laugh at her statement, and even the way she said it, "But the practice seems to have had a good purpose." He took a deep breath, sitting up on his side a little and reaching a hand out to stroke her arm with his beautiful crimson eyes softening and making Tori pause to listen to what he was going to say next. "I need you to do me a favor…please." He pleaded even though he knew she was just going to nod and keep listening, "I need your help with the both of them, not just Bryan. I can always say to them that I want to help, but I don't always manage."

She smiled and nodded, just like he knew she would, leaning in to kiss the other. "I'll try my best, I promise that." She moved a little closer, her fingers moving slowly through his hair, moving even closer to kiss him softly on the cheek, then whispering in his ear, "You should know by now that I like to help people if I can and I want to help them too."

"It won't be easy, you know that though, don't you?"

Tori smiled, lying back down and staring up at the ceiling, "Well I managed to make a bit of a difference with you, I think with them it'll be a little bit easier."

Kai turned over to face her, moving to her as close as possible, wrapping an arm around her waist and shutting his eyes, "You're the expert."

Tori curled close to him, still careful when touching him, terrified that she'd hurt him. "So we know that something's wrong with Bryan and Tala, but how are you?"

"If you compare how I felt just before going into the hospital, then I'd have to say I feel better." He pulled her closer, feeling her fear, "Don't worry about me now, I'm a lot better." He smirked and kissed her neck and shoulder playfully, "I forget that there's no use in asking you not to worry about me."

"If Bryan or Tala asked you not to worry about them, would you possibly be able to stop worrying?"

Kai opened his eyes and gave her a look that read something like 'just be quiet and stop asking questions you already know the answer to'. He turned over onto his back, "Didn't you say you were going to go get changed?"

The auburn-haired figure pouted, hitting Kai's arm childishly, "I'm going." She got off the bed, straightening out her nightdress before walking over to the bathroom, "Keep an eye on those two, okay?"

Kai nodded reassuringly, watching her disappear into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. He fought off the urge to go and check on his friends just yet, believing that they were probably both still sleeping soundly and needed as much rest as they could get.

He could practically feel the pain that Bryan must've been in. Losing his girlfriend…that was probably the most relatable feeling Kai had right now. The fear and pain of losing Tori…he had felt it countless times and even though it was a long time ago now, it hadn't exactly numbed his pain. When he'd found Tori clinically dead on the floor of her apartment, he'd felt his whole world crash down on him in the blink of an eye and barely remembered what he did right after he saw her there. The overwhelming emotions he had felt, had erased most of his memory of his actions.

As for Tala, Kai couldn't quite feel the same for him but his heart had definitely gone out to him. Tala was the second oldest next to Kai, so with Kai as far away from his two childhood friend's as possible a lot of the responsibility fell on the redhead's shoulders. Tala was young, he was mature but he couldn't handle everything by himself. The worst of it was that he would always blame himself if something in their lives didn't go the right way. When they'd suspected that Bryan had been raped as a kid in the Abbey, Tala was the first to blame himself, saying he never should've trust Boris to be alone with Bryan. Boris had been capable of so many things, and with little evidence, they wouldn't have put pedophilia past him.

They never did find out from Bryan if Boris had in fact hurt him like that but Tala got over it to a certain extent after Kai explained to him that back then, with all the things that Boris had been doing to Tala, like making him almost emotionless, there was very little he could've done for his friend. Needless to say, that no matter what case it was, Tala always blamed himself for misfortunes that happened around him. Kai could only imagine how his dear friend would be feeling at the time. Tala had been through enough as it was, right now he just needed some time to feel like he didn't always have to take the blame. Kai would be okay with taking some of the responsibility if it made his friend's life a little bit easier, even if it was just for a very short while.

At the time though, Kai wasn't sure where he should even start from. He didn't know if he wanted to help Bryan grieve first, or help Tala with his self-loathing. He wasn't sure how he'd keep up with both his friends. He decided that as of yet, the one thing he needed was another cup of coffee to wake him up. He got off the bed, picking up his mug which he'd brought in from the spare bedroom earlier, making his way down the hall to the kitchen.

He'd placed the mug back onto the counter, noting his youngest friend outside on the balcony. Bryan had his arm stretched out over the balcony, a cigarette between his two fingers and his forehead resting against the probably freezing cold metal of the railings. That sight wasn't particularly upsetting to Kai, he had accepted the fact that sometimes Bryan had needed times to be alone and sulk a little, maybe this happened to be one of those times. Kai walked out onto the balcony, stepping up beside Bryan's side and looking down at him like there was nothing strange about the way his friend was, "Bry…are you alright?"

Hearing his friend's words, Bryan lifted his head, supporting his head by retracting the arm that had been stretched over the bars and was holding his cigarette, "Yeah." He sounded as he normally did, no hitch in his voice, no sound that he was lying, or anything of that sort. Kai raised his eyebrows, taking a look at Bryan's features properly. He looked fine for the most part and he would've sworn Bryan was fine if it weren't for his cheeks were practically a bright pink which contrasted heavily with the lilac-haired boy's usually pale skin. "Yes Kai, I'm well-aware I'm turning red, I don't need a mirror."

Kai could practically feel the heat radiating from Bryan's body by now, almost hesitant to place a hand on his forehead, "It's probably the temperature change between here and Russia, it's winter here but nothing like Russian winters." He watched Bryan toss his cigarette off the balcony, then taking in a heavy breath and about to place his head back onto the cold railing before Kai stopped him, "Let's get inside." He said it firmly, Bryan therefore listening to him, apparently not in the mood to argue with him over these little things. They both entered the kitchen, Kai pulling out a chair for Bryan before he went over to the freezer. He brought out an ice pack and put it in a cloth before moving it over to Bryan's neck, letting go once Bryan caught hold of it. "You look hung-over." Kai laughed quietly at the sight of him a few moments later, having just placed a cup of coffee down onto the table in front of Bryan.

"I hope you're not implying that I've been drinking again." Bryan bit out rudely.

Kai shook his head, "No…" he paused for a moment, taking in Bryan's appearance a little more closely as he sat down at the table, "It seems like you picked up a new habit." He gestured to the cigarette pack in between them on the table, watching Bryan instantly pick them up and put them in his pockets.

By now Bryan knew well enough that when Kai started an argument about habits he tended to get possessive and take the object of the habit away from him. "I'm not perfect Kai, sometimes a person just needs something like this."

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" he asked, assuming that considering Tala was in just of a mood as Bryan was, he should start helping Bryan out as soon as possible to get the job done.

"Of course not."

Kai sighed very softly, Bryan only hearing it because of his skill for hearing very silent things, "Tala told me you haven't even grieved yet. Nothing, not even a tear, not even a 'why me?' rant. We expect you to have some sort of reaction Bryan." He took a deep breath, bringing up a subject for himself that he wished he didn't have to, "You know the state Tori was in two years ago…you know how bad it was and that I was going to lose her at any minute. At least, it always showed that her death would have a big impact on me. It's meant to have a big impact on you but we didn't expect it to be such an impact that you stopped feeling it."

"Well I did! I stopped feeling it!" He stood up so harshly the chair practically fell back onto the ground. Holding his gaze strongly with Kai's concerned one he tossed the icepack onto the sink, the ice making a terrible rattling sound against the metal that emphasized his frustration as much as his pain, leaving the kitchen a second later. He stormed into the bedroom he shared with Tala, shutting the door firmly behind him and sitting down at the foot of the bed. His arms crossed, moved to his knees where he rested his head to stop the dizziness. He hadn't yelled like that in a few weeks, he never wanted to feel that kind of rush again.

Tala sat up in bed, wiping at his eyes as he crawled over to the foot of the bed where Bryan was, "What happened?" he asked quietly, still exhausted beyond belief.

"Nothing." Bryan bit out, trying to sound strong but speaking too gently to be able to live up to the expectations. There really was only so much a human being could take all at once.

"Come on Bry, what is it?"

Bryan felt Tala about to put a hand on his back, the younger boy instantly getting off the foot of the bed and moving to the top of it, sneaking beneath the covers quietly, "I just need some more sleep." He murmured, burying his red cheek into the nicely-scented pillow, forcing his eyes shut tightly.

For the time being, Tala chose to pretend that he hadn't seen Bryan a little upset and moved to the top of the bed too, lying back down as he had been earlier and followed his best friend's good example, shutting his eyes and attempting to fall asleep for just another hour.

In the meantime Kai walked back to his bedroom and automatically and unknowingly did the same as his friends. He'd had probably more than enough sleep though so sleeping any longer was not possible like it was for the others. After about fifteen minutes Tori exited the bathroom, making Kai look up at her with some surprise.

"What's up with you?" Tori asked, having noticed his rather surprised look.

"In the short amount of time it takes you to have a shower and change, I manage to get Bryan mad at me."

Tori tilted her head to one side, confusion written on her small features, "How'd you manage to that?" she sat down abruptly in the armchair, Denzelle appearing on the arm of the chair, tilting sideways to rest her head lightly on her Mistress' shoulder.

Kai had long closed his eyes again, insisting on trying to relax for just a few minutes, "I asked if he wanted to talk about what happened, he didn't want to obviously and when I told him that we wanted him to deal with what happened he got frustrated and went to the spare room again."

"After experiencing pain and frustration for so long…he finally finds some happiness and it's taken from him." Denzelle summed up monotonously, looking at Kai quite sternly, "How would you feel Kai?"

"If Bryan tried to deal with his emotions by crying…and he cried all the time since his girlfriend's death, wouldn't you give him that speech of 'don't cry, you've got to move on'?"

"I wouldn't!" Kai argued, "Bryan never cries so at least if he cried over this then I'd be fine with it, at least I could say that he was trying to deal with it some way but right now he isn't."

"There's no point in trying to tell him that he should deal with her death, I'm sure he just needs some time."

The Russian got off the bed, almost in a hurry, unable to just lie back and do nothing, "How much time do you want to give him, Denz? Till he hurts himself or something?" he bit down hard on his lip, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms, "Bryan and I have almost always had the same reasoning in life, and Tala was never too far off either. I'm just trying to think back to the way I felt…to what I would've done if I had lost Tori."

The mentioned girl got out of her seat, almost storming up to Kai before wrapping her arms around him last minute. For some time, he didn't move though, he kept his head turned away from, his arms still crossed in between them that kept them apart. "If something ever happened to me I wouldn't want you to do anything to yourself, okay?"

"I want to be the one that talks to Bryan, I think I know what he's going through and I want to try to be the one that gets through to him."

Denzelle was close to them now, standing beside the two of them, her arms crossed as she stared up at Kai with some understanding in her bright eyes, "You can always talk to him, just don't push the poor boy over the edge." She disappeared after she said those words and this left Kai to think as Tori stopped embracing him kindly.

"Try not to worry about him too much, Kai."

Kai leaned closer to her, tilting her chin upwards slightly and setting his lips on hers for just a brief second, using this as a chance to take his mind off things for just a second. In a little moment like that, he's given a chance to think, where no one says a word, where no one can interrupt his thoughts. He pulled away softly, still keeping close to her, "Why don't you go to the Dojo? Check on the others for me, you know if I go there I'm going to want to train and…"

"And I know what I told you, I told you no more training for at least two weeks."

Kai nodded, speaking softly, "Exactly. And it's not going to be any fun over here so just go there, have fun or something."

Tori looked increasingly concerned but nodded all the same, "Sure, but I won't be long." She moved away from him after that, walking around the room to pick up some things before she left; her beyblade, her mobile, her backpack, amongst other things, before leaving the room, and finally, the apartment.

This had officially left Kai at home with his two childhood friends, two people that could worry him enough for a lifetime. If there was ever a time where Kai was clueless on what to do it would have to be right now when he was clueless from where to start from in helping them. It was impossible to find out who he should give priority to and how he would have to help them too.

'_Shouldn't you start by getting some rest like they are?' _Dranzer chimed in, concern being hinted in his voice.

'_I was in a hospital for three weeks, I've got enough rest to last a while.' _

'_You're so worried about them.' _

Kai took a seat in the kitchen at the table, resting his head in his hand, _'You think I shouldn't be?' _

'_I never said that, Master.' _

Kai sat there alone in silence, choosing not to indulge in further conversation with his bit-beast for some time. Quietly, he went through some of his earlier memories with his friends. Meeting the two of them in training for the very first time as kids was the first happy memory that came to mind. Unfortunately, memories after that weren't all that happy.

The three of them had tried to look on the bright side of things for the longest time. They tried to convince themselves that if it hadn't been for the position they'd all been put in, they never would've met each other and made such good friends, and that if they all hadn't been hurt by Boris, they never would've come together to look after each other like good friends should. After a while they'd grown colder to each other, not willingly of course, but after living for so long in the state they were in, hope had evaporated gradually and punishment forced their friendship apart. Upon leaving the Abbey, most of the damage to their bodies and minds had been restored, they all tried to go back to the friendship they had in the beginning. For the beginning, it was extremely difficult, Bryan still kept to himself, Tala refused to bother people with his problems and Kai just generally didn't have much tolerance for people at the time.

It could've been that after a while they all realized that they needed each other, that if they ever wanted to get through all the bad that went on in their lives then they had to make an effort to bring back some of the good. And needless to say, the only good in their childhoods was their friendship to each other. So after a long time of trying to restore the friendship they once had, they all managed it quite well and were all able to look at the others as loyal friends. They kept in contact all the time, especially since Tala and Bryan chose to stay in Russia while Kai was in Japan. Kai visited on more than one occasion but it still wasn't the same.

They all understood that regardless of how strong their friendship had become, they couldn't tell each other everything, it just wasn't that simple. They all respected each other for how much they were able to say but it still broke them up a little when they knew that they couldn't always help their friends and that helpless feeling was probably the one that made them feel like they had been defeated.

"Kai?"

Half way through his thoughts Kai had made himself a cup of coffee, currently sitting at the table with the mug in his hand, his head lowered to stare interestingly at the liquid inside it.

"Kai?" The second call had finally snapped him out of his thoughts again, glancing up at Tala who was at the kitchen door, "Honestly Kai, if you put your face any deeper into that mug you're going to need a snorkel."

"I thought you were going to rest."

"And I did." Tala sat down across from Kai, resting both arms on the table, "What happened to Bryan earlier? He seemed upset when he came into the room."

Kai knew the redhead wasn't going to like idea of Kai having spoken to Bryan so soon but there were no lies between these two lately, "I tried to talk to him about what happened and he didn't respond very well to what I said."

Tala emitted a heavy exhale, resting his forehead on his arms briefly, "I told you that we didn't need to talk to him about it right now." He bit down on his lip, looking up at the thoughtful expression on Kai's face as he continued to stare into his mug, "I guess you know more about how he's feeling than I do, being in a relationship and all that's happened between you and Tori, you probably know what he's going through."

The redhead had brought himself to remember all the concern and fear that could've almost been heard in Kai's e-mails about two and half years ago when Tori was still going to let herself die, and even after that, still insisted on not letting him take care of her like he wanted to. He'd realized that Kai knew too much about how Bryan felt and that he didn't and assumed he could no longer be of much help. He wished that Kai could just hurry up and help Bryan now, that way putting Tala out of his misery from feeling like was incapable of helping someone he'd known for so long.

"I couldn't _not_ say something to him, Tal."

Tala nodded softly, "I understand." He rested his head down comfortably onto his arms, he remained quiet for a few moments, then glancing at Kai, "Even if the reason we're here isn't a very good one, I'm glad we got to see you again."

"Emails aren't very helpful anymore, are they?"

"They're not bad," he shrugged, "But it's not the same as seeing you."

"And you two still don't want to move here."

"Japan's more your kind of place Kai, Bryan and I belong in Russia." He smirked suddenly, a thought coming to mind, "And besides, at least we came to visit again this year, last time we saw you was maybe two years ago."

"I really should visit more." Kai nodded in agreement.

"You've been busy, Bryan and I understand that much." He seemed to understand that Kai wasn't in a very talkative mood but thought that it would be good if they had some conversation, after all, it's just what Tala needed right now, general chat with a friend. "So…is Tori surprised at seeing this side of you?" he asked, sounding a little timid at the question at first.

A small smile grew on Kai's face, "Just a little, she sees me act like this sometimes when I'm with her, never with the team though. She was a little surprised at first though, yeah."

"As to be expected when her boyfriend who's usually so cold around her ends up worry and caring constantly for two of his friends."

"Even I'm entitled to worrying about my friends, Tala."

"I know, but it doesn't mean you need to do it so much."

To Kai, that one little sentence that parted from his best friend's lips, poured out plenty of Tala's soul to him as it was. This was their friendship. Their friendship was understanding each other's feelings from some of the shortest sentences. This friendship of theirs wasn't about to fade out any time soon thankfully. Neither of them had to co-operate with each other for the friendship to work because they'd always find a way to sort everything between them out.

'_**but it still broke them up a little when they knew that they couldn't always help their friends**_

_**and that helpless feeling was probably the one that made them feel like they had been defeated.'**_

Maybe of all the relationships and friendships in the world, maybe this reason that they were simply able to understand each other, helped them from feeling like strangers to each other and feeling like they were defeated. _Most_ of all the feeling like they were defeated. They were some of the lucky ones, this meaning of understanding helped them because it meant they didn't need to feel the defeat often. All that was needed was to treat each other like friends, even if they were never normal, and they didn't have a normal friendship now, they could still have healthy and comforting friendships.

**A/N: This was not my favorite chapter as of yet. I see so much wrong with this chapter but so much that I felt needed to be written. Forgive me if there are many errors in the spelling. Half way through the chapter, I came to my dad's place and there is something wrong with the keys on the laptop here(some of them are broken and you need to press them really hard for them to work) I fixed a ton of spelling mistakes this time so I hope there aren't too many left. **

**Please try to leave a review on this chapter and let me know what you thought of it. Take care everyone! **


	9. Maybe's and Probably's

Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

The rest of the day had gone rather silently. Bryan stayed in the spare bedroom for the whole evening, then getting changed when he heard Kai talking on the phone and telling Tala that Tori would be home soon. After that he went to smoke out onto the balcony for a while. Tala stayed in the kitchen for most of the time, trying to keep conversation with Kai going for as long as he could keep it. Kai was accepting to keep the conversation going, knowing that the boy would most likely go back to bed if he didn't have something to take his mind off the exhaustion.

In the evening after Tori had arrived from checking on the team, she began to prepare dinner, refusing to give in to take out just yet. She chose to make pasta that evening, not quite sure what did possess her to do so but in the end, it turned out that the choice was great because it happened to be Bryan's favorite meal. Upon finding that out, Tori was beyond thinking that it was a coincidence.

Kai and Tala watched a movie on TV in the evening, having grown past talking for a short amount of time. Bryan joined them every few minutes in between sitting out on the balcony but Tori was usually out there doing some homework and he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable by staying out there with her. After the movie, Tala went outside to tell Tori thanks for dinner, advised Bryan that he shouldn't stay awake too late and then went to bed, most likely still trying to keep his sleeping patterns in order.

Tori had then gone inside to spend some quiet moments with her boyfriend while Bryan stayed outside. She rested her head against his shoulder for a while, realizing that the boy was slowly beginning to feel tired after a while. "Hey, why don't you go get some sleep?" the auburn haired girl lifted her head up, looking over at him.

Kai gripped at the cushions by his side, tensing up his muscles as he forced himself off the sofa, turning round to look back at her, "Aren't you coming to bed?"

"I'll be there in a few minutes. I've just got to set the sofa back up for Bryan otherwise he won't have anywhere to sleep." She tried to force a smile which Kai didn't seem too convinced about but nodded anyway and left the room. She then did what she said she would; fix things on the sofa for Bryan, putting the pillows and blankets back there since they'd moved them when the other two were watching the movie. Walking over to the balcony, her eyes slowly scanned the boy outside, taking in almost every detail she could. The boy, being as tall as he was, looked a little hunched over from tiredness at the moment. Although, from what Kai had told her about the day, she knew the boy's emotions were probably running really high, as close to him as he kept them, they probably exhausted him.

His arm was stretched over the railings again, his head resting on the railing for a few more moments before he lifted it again, drawing his arm close to him again and resting his head on his palm. She couldn't see much of his facial features because she was mostly staring at him from behind but she could see one side of his face when he turned to look at the left side of the scenery. His eyes were probably the brightest part of his features. Something shone in his eyes, something she couldn't quite label as an emotion. To her it was an expression she was used to seeing, but not quite good at recognizing easily.

To explain it, the look on his face was mostly blank but at times waves of an emotion washed over it for just a split second, making people wonder how he was feeling. A rather strong frown was held by his lips. His eyes continued to shine with something like…frustration, anger and pain all at once. At times when he inhaled the cigarette smoke he'd stare at the cigarette with…confusion and frustration mixed into one, like he didn't understand what he was doing and knew it was wrong. His skin was pale as it always was, as she'd recognized Kai's and Tala to be the same way. On the other hand, there was in fact still a light pink tint in Bryan's cheeks. Possibly he was ill or something? Well that could be considered blushing…but why would he be blushing? Did he know she was watching him or something?

She shook her head of most of the thoughts that had consumed her for the past few moments, then trying to keep redness out of her own face, she slid open the door slowly and he looked back at her hurriedly. "Hey, sorry, I didn't startle you, did I?" he turned away from her again without an answer and she moved to stand beside him, "Well Kai and I are off to bed so are you going to be alright awake by yourself?"

"Has Kai reminded you that I'm not four years old again?" Bryan was almost monotonous but there was something in his tone of voice that she couldn't quite grasp.

Tori smiled softly, stepping a little closer and placing a hand on the boy's forearm, "Has Kai reminded you that I've been overprotective of everyone since we met each other?" there was a hint of humor in her voice, hope in her mind that she could avoid the awkwardness to a minimum.

"He has." Bryan lied, knowing that information from Kai's emails though. "I'll be fine. Go and get some sleep."

The girl accepted the fact that the boy didn't want to talk to her, he wasn't in the mood for conversation and that was okay, it was getting late anyway and nobody wanted to have emotional chats that late at night when they were tired, did they?

"Right. Well there are blankets and pillows on the sofa like last night in case you don't want to take the spare room." She walked over to the door, leaning against the door frame as she waved a little, "Good night, sleep well." She smiled honestly, her eyes sparkling with something comforting that warmed Bryan's insides at the sight of. He'd looked back at her just before she left, continuing to watch as she disappeared from the living room too.

A giggle resonated from beside the boy, making him snap his attention in the direction of it. A tall cute looking pale-skinned girl stood there, turning her attention away from the door to look over the balcony. Then giggling another time before sitting up on the railings.

In all honesty, Bryan did seem a little scared of her. Well not her but the surprise of seeing her there. _'That's Denzelle, Master. She's Mistress Tori's bit-beast, she's half-human so that's why she's in front of you.' _Falborg had possibly heard his Master's heartbeat becoming erratic when he'd seen the girl, not knowing where she'd come from.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for your bit-beast to have to explain who I am." The bright-eyed girl placed a hand out for him to take, "I'm Denzelle, Tori's guardian bit-beast."

Bryan was about to keep his hand away from her and not reply but with more soothing from his own bit-beast in his mind, he found no harm in placing his hand out to the girl and shaking her hand. "So…what are you doing out here?" he asked with hesitance, turning a little red from having someone just appearing beside him like that, and less than a meter away from him no less.

Denzelle laughed softly, "When Tori and Kai go to bed every night, I like to come out here for a while." She saw a blank look on his face as he stared over the edge of the balcony, "You had just missed me last night. I'd just gone back to my blade when you woke up."

If Denzelle was actually trying to make Bryan trust her like he thought she did from the years of analyzing people, he'd say she was doing a rather poor job. As if he wanted to know that she knew when he got out of bed and such things. It wasn't exactly comforting to know that someone else knew things he hadn't told them. He crossed his arms and sat back against the small cold iron table there was out on the balcony, shuddering heavily at the unexpected icy contact.

"It's really nice out here…isn't it?"

Bryan had failed at attempts at making conversation with the bit-beast, having ignored her all up until now, "I guess so." He looked out into the distance again and took in the scenery. It was plain but it was beautiful. The silhouettes of buildings could be seen for so long, lights from those same buildings shining and causing patterns in the darkness. Above, the dark black sky was beautifully adorned with bright white stars. It was a rather pretty sight if you were the type to accept beauty as simple as that.

"You just stay out here for the cigarettes, huh?" She smirked, looking back at him as that had come to mind.

Bryan shrugged, "It's the first reason but the scenery is a good one too."

Denzelle laughed at that, nodding in understanding, "So how long then? By Kai's first reaction to seeing you doing it I assume it's not something you've been doing for a while."

"About two months." Bryan answered monotonously, taking a seat, resting his head on his hand on the table, "But he shouldn't have been too surprised. I'm all about bad habits." There was just a hint of loathing at the end of that statement, almost like Kai should've known that Bryan would just cause some kind of trouble like that or something.

The girl watched as she kicked her feet over the balcony, staring from her feet to the ground at a very large distance from each other, "Well that's being a little too hard on yourself, don't you think?"

The lilac-haired boy sighed, hanging his head with exhaustion, "What are you really doing out here?" he didn't mean to sound rude or anything, it just was that he hadn't been in a mood to talk to people lately.

"Hasn't Falborg told you that bit-beast's can't sleep?"

"Well aren't you half-human or something? Doesn't that count?" Bryan was barely into the conversation, feeling tired but not willing to go to sleep just yet.

"I just can't be out of my beyblade for too long."

Bryan wiped at his eyes, growing tired, "Well then how long till you have to be back in there?"

Denzelle pouted, turning round on the railings to face him, "Am I bothering you that much already?" she saw the boy shake his head and could also vaguely hearing his bones cracking painfully, "Shouldn't you go and get some sleep? You look like you're getting really tired…maybe you're coming down with something too."

"I'm fine, I feel fine." So maybe the headache he had been feeling was becoming more tangible to the bit-beast. He was trying to cope with keeping up appearances, talking to the bit-beast as casually as he could without sounding rude and trying to ignore the persistent worry of his own bit-beast in his head. He reached into his pocket, taking the box of cigarettes out, slipping one between his fingers before lighting it. The elbow of the hand that held the cigarette was propped up onto the table, his other forearm just resting on the table as he rested his chin on it for a while.

Denzelle sat in the seat opposite him, picking up the box and pulling on the lid to open it, "May I?" she asked politely.

At first Bryan was a little confused but just waved his cigarette-holding hand, "Go ahead." Once she placed the cigarette in her mouth, he pulled the lighter out and lit it for her, placing it back in his pocket for safe-keeping. He sat back in his seat, finding the closeness between them alarming, same arm that was on the table crossed against his chest, his elbow resting on it as he shook his head with another puff, "I must be a real terrible owner for a bit-beast, I didn't even know bit-beasts could be half-human, or smoke for that matter."

"It's very rare." Denzelle blew the nicotine-filled air out above her, sort of enjoying the relief she got from trying something she hadn't done for a very long time. She looked at him and in a way almost knew what he was thinking even though nothing showed it physically, "You thought I was going to bug you about this not being healthy, right?"

He shrugged a little, "Kai hasn't done it yet…neither has Tori and Tala has mentioned it a few times before but he hasn't recently. I assumed someone would bring it up eventually."

"Yes, well, I'm not like them." She smiled as though it was something to be thankful for, "But…of course I have concerns like they do."

Bryan's chest expanded in a deep breath, raising his eyes to the sky, "Here we go." He mumbled to himself.

Denzelle had been tapping her cigarette over the ashtray when she saw that, her eyebrow instantly raising, "I was just going to tell you that you look like you're falling ill and that maybe after that," she gestured to the cigarette in his hand, "you should sleep, at least for a few hours." She watched the boy's face properly as he seemed to be incredulous at peoples attempts to look after him, "Please? If you won't get some rest for your sake then please do it for my Mistress. She worries a lot about you guys and…like it or not, she will bug you until you take care of yourself a little." The humor that Bryan found in her voice from the fact that she was right about all that made him laugh a little and the cute laugh made Denzelle smile, "I know it sounds funny now but she really will bug you."

Bryan's laugh had silenced with that, a small smile still on his face as he stared at the black iron of the table, "I was going to get some sleep after this anyway. You shouldn't try so hard to convince people things without knowing what they're going to do first."

She nodded in understanding, silently admitting that he was in fact right. While she was out of her beyblade she had tried to be more like a human and less like a bit-beast, that meant leaving as many of her supernatural powers in the blade where they belonged, including the ability to read some peoples thoughts. At the same time though, Kai had been a character that had kept his mind very well guarded and not even should could ever get much access to it in the beginning so she didn't think that getting into Bryan's would be any easier. If anything, it would have been harder. "It's just that I worry about people almost as much as my Mistress does. And because of that…I really don't want to see her bothering you the whole week you're here." She had kept a straight face, since after so long of warning Kai and the rest of the team, it seemed normal for her to warn people about Tori like that.

"She's…a sweet girl, she worries but she won't get that irritating." Bryan put the cigarette out in the ashtray, unable to understand how he hadn't seen that there earlier, "I'm going to have a shower and change." He walked back inside; leaving the balcony open just enough to Denzelle to slid it open and get back inside.

The girl had practically felt the boy's heart fall in his statement about Tori. She wasn't sure why but it felt like deep down inside of him something snapped when he said that. She wasn't sure but maybe Tori and her were the only other two girls that he'd really had a conversation with since his girlfriend's passing. Maybe they were the only two girls he'd ever had some sort of attachment with at all.

She'd clearly heard Kai telling Tori and her once that at the Abbey it was all guys and that it'd be either a miracle or a hallucination if they saw a girl walking around there. She gazed into the living room, wondering about the boy as she had done years ago with Kai.

Probably the first thing that came to mind with Bryan was that she thought about how difficult it must've been to get him into any relationship. She founded it hard to believe he managed to put his defense down long enough to be in a relationship with anyone. Tala was a lot more sociable than Bryan was. She'd spoken to Tala earlier that day when Tori got home, she had wanted to ask Kai something and Tala had happened to be in the room. Bryan was still asleep and hadn't been introduced to her, hence why he had met her only a while ago.

She found it hard to believe that Tala hadn't been in a relationship with anyone. As sweet as she thought both Bryan and Tala were, she thought that they'd have plenty of girls interested in them. So they did have a lot of baggage but sometimes that baggage is worth discovering the person beneath the surface. These thoughts came and went for a while before she ran down the hall elegantly and silently, knocking on the door before being told it was okay to go in. When she'd entered, Kai and Tori were curled up in bed beneath the heavy covers, Tori wrapped in the stronger arms of her boyfriend while his fingers stroked her hair and back, her head against his chest as she looked like she was going to fall asleep any minute.

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Denzelle checked from the door, ready to leave and close it behind her if she had.

"No, come in." Kai called her in.

"Kai was just helping me go to sleep." Tori wiped at her eyes tiredly, then yawning and sitting up a little on her side. "Did something happen?"

Denzelle shook her head and sat at the foot of the bed, "No…I was just going to talk to you both about Bryan."

This caught Kai's attention, bringing him into a sitting position in a hurry, "Is something wrong with him?"

"No," She then paused for a moment, thinking about it for another second, "Nothing serious at least. He seems okay I guess; he's really avoiding the subject of his girlfriend which makes sense, no body really wants to talk about something that makes them sad. Making conversation with him is…difficult but its not impossible if you ask the right questions and not dwell on painful subjects for too long."

This little information definitely interested Kai a lot more, it made sense to him and little pierces of information like this might be able to help him to help Bryan later on. "Thanks for talking to him." He found it difficult to show gratitude towards any person but with him and Denzelle, they always had like a mutual understanding so he knew those words were enough.

Denzelle nodded a little, biting down on her lip, "Can I…ask a personal question?"

"If it helps Bryan then I think Kai will answer just about anything by now." Tori answered for him, lying back down and turning onto her side, her back towards them as she grew tired enough to fall asleep in a minute.

The bit-beast had looked at Kai after her Mistress answered for him, watching him nod in agreement to what his love had told him, "Did Bryan ever get a psychiatric exam done? I mean…not that he'd really have done something to need it or anything but usually when someone goes through as much as the three of you have…maybe they did run some tests after."

Kai nodded, getting out of bed and walking over to the dressing table closer to the door where Denzelle was, that way being able to keep his tone quiet and not wake Tori if she fell asleep soon. "We all had tests done on us after we left the Abbey. Bryan and Tala got the worst end of it; psych evaluations about three times a week, doctors appointments every week till every last bruise was gone, surgery to correct any mistakes Boris' surgeons made." He exhaled heavily, crossing his arms across his chest as his eyes began practically blazing with anger, "After all they'd been through, they just wanted to be left alone, not to be touched, not to be checked on every half hour and instead they got all they didn't want or need."

She bit on her lip; she didn't mean to upset him, "Well in the end was he diagnosed with anything? Maybe that could help us understand him and how we can help him."

Kai put his hands together, cursing rudely beneath his breath as he found that for a while he couldn't quite remember the name, "APD, Avoidant Personality Disorder, I think." He mumbled, looking up at her hurriedly once he said it. He shook his head a little then, "But none of us ever listened to those sorts of things. We hated it, like someone was just giving us labels. Bryan cared least about it, he had a therapist for a while and then he was given the choice to stop going to him and so he did." He smiled softly at a memory that crossed his mind suddenly, "He'd come online sometimes after a session, right when it was the middle of the night here, ranting about how he hated going. At the end of ranting he'd just say 'sorry for bothering you' and disappear without letting me tell him anything, then the next day it was as though nothing ever happened."

She placed her hand out onto his forearm, smiling softly to comfort him. "I think he just went to the living room now. He'd gone to have a shower before bed. I'll keep an eye on him and make sure he's okay."

"I'll keep an eye on Tala in the meantime."

"No." Denzelle insisted hastily, "I can take care of the both of them in the night; you need to get some sleep."

Even after knowing each other for so long, Kai still found asking for help from those he trusted most a difficult thing to do. "Are you sure about that?"

She nodded quickly, a bright beautiful smile on her face, "Of course. Besides, its not like I've got anything better to do and I'll still be safe because I don't need to be out of my blade all the time." She stepped close to him, placing a hand to his cheek for a second, "Good night, Kai, sleep well." Her smile didn't fade, not even for a second, probably the biggest resemblance that Tori and her bit-beast had. She walked out of the room after that, making sure the door made the quietest sound possible. She walked down to the living room, standing in doorway as she saw Bryan lying beneath some blankets on the sofa, using his elbow for support as he sat up to adjust and practically beat at the pillows that lay under his head. "Are you sure you're not willing to share the spare bed with Tala?"

Bryan jumped a little at the sound of her voice, his eyes widening a second in frustration as his heartbeat began to settle again after the fright, biting down hard on his tongue on the inside of his mouth, "Don't sneak up on people like that." He punched the pillow one more time before setting his head down onto it, "Good night." He then felt a light brushing movement against his shoulder, opening his eyes again and seeing Denzelle there adjusting the blankets over him, "What are you doing?"

"Sorry, motherly-instincts and all." She walked away from him and out onto the balcony, "Good night." She then shut the door quietly behind her as she went out to sit on the railings as she had done before. She sat down in the chair she had been in a while ago, staring out over the balcony as she went through a few things in her head. Earlier she wouldn't have been able to come up with the right disorder to say that Bryan had but now because her focus was on one in particular, the symptoms did make some sense.

'_Hypersensitivity to criticism and rejection- Well Kai did tell Tori that Bryan and Tala wouldn't be able to handle the same attitude he keeps with the team._

_Self-imposed social isolation- definitely._

_Extreme shyness in social situations but with a strong desire for a close relationship- That could be what made him go for a relationship faster than Tala I guess. _

_Chronic substance abuse or dependence- He did say he had habits like that. That brings him to the self-critical part and we all know he has that, along with the other two though.' _

'_I don't think Bryan would like you saying these things about him.' _Falborg interrupted her thoughts quietly.

'_I'm sorry…I don't mean to sound cruel or anything. It's just sort of my job to help out.' _

'_I'm just as worried about my Master as everyone else around him is. He talks to me as much as he talks to all of you and we used to talk all the time.' _

'_Well I've been there a couple hundred times.' _She sounded a tad bitter, remembering the countless times that she spent almost days without talking to Tori. _'My job is analyzing people. Tori is great at helping people but not too good at analyzing them first so that's what I do.' _

'_I don't think that you could go through all those things on the little 'symptom checklist' based off the little you know about him so…do you mind if I help?' _

Denzelle smiled softly and anyone would think she were crazy as it appeared as though she were smiling for no reason. _'That would be great.' _

Falborg took in almost a sigh of relief, _'So what's next?' _

'_High self-consciousness.' _

'_In Bryan's case that'd be putting it lightly. He's very self-conscious, he was as a kid and it started again once Boris was through with him.' _

'_Low self-esteem and shyness?' _She rested her head on the table, the mind-chat with the bit-beast taking some energy out of her in the late hour.

'_Yes and yes.' _

'_Inferiority?' _

'_Yes.'_

Denzelle thought for a moment as all things slowly began to add up in her mind, _'What about…feelings of inadequacy and self-criticism when it comes to comparing his problems with others?' _

'_Both. Of all of them he took criticism the worst but there was nothing worse than the criticism he inflicted on himself. He would walk for about an hour to get onto the furthest side of the Abbey just so that he could punish himself for a stupid action or a loss at a match or something like that.' _

Denzelle placed her arms over each other, resting her head on them more comfortably. _'How did he used to do that?' _she had to admit that she'd begun to get a little curious about him, he was an interesting character for sure.

Falborg sighed a little in her mind, probably fighting against the will to say something about what used to happen. He decided to do so, figuring that of all people Denzelle could do the least amount of damage with the information. _'Mention anything and he's done it; cut himself, burn himself, starve himself, picking at his skin, scratching at himself, try to turn me against him and make me hurt him. He'd do anything; he'd have himself tortured by any of the guards if he hadn't been calmed down in time.' _

'_Poor boy.' _She thought sympathetically, more to herself than the other. _'You know…we'll use this information for good right? You know we won't use it against him or anything.' _

'_Kai and Bryan have almost always had the same mentalities, they both had the same sense of distrust for people and Dranzer was probably more protective of his Master than I am of mine. I think that if he has grown to trust both you and your Mistress, then you both must have done a lot to prove it to him.' _

'_If there's any reason at all for why my Mistress still breathes it's because she wants to look after people.' _She shook her head of depressing thoughts that were bound to enter her mind at the thought of just that one thing. If Tori helped someone else it'd be the last thing she did. _'I should check on Bryan and Tala. Maybe you should get back to Bryan,' _she peeked inside where she could see the boy sound asleep, curled up and with a pillow pulled close to his body, _'I'm sure he doesn't need to be any more lonely than he already is.' _

'_You think he can tell the difference?' _

'_Tori could always feel something when I was closer to her. Kai says he feels a warmth when Dranzer is around, who's to say that Bryan can't feel something?' _She stepped inside, quietly closing the door behind her and sitting down in the coffee table to be able to be close to Bryan, watching the serene look on his face even though he groaned quietly and pulled the pillow closer to him with his strong arm.

'_Don't you have more questions?' _

'_Just one more…but I came to the conclusion of that one by myself.' _

'_What is it then?' _

Denzelle sat forward a little, her arms crossed on her knees as she tried to force a small weak smile onto her face, "How much does he distrust the people around him?" she whispered tenderly, her breath tickling the young boy's skin. She could feel the bit-beast retreating from her mind a few moments later and with a sigh, she forced herself to get up and gracefully stride down the hall without a sound, opening the door to the spare bedroom and sneaking a quick look of the other blader.

He was just like the other two. For three guys who were so tough during the day and well-guarding their emotions so much, they looked like the most angelic and sensitive creatures on Earth when they slept. Maybe it was the fact that they probably exhausted themselves so much during the day by keeping themselves safe, the night was the only chance they could let their guards down. Maybe if they knew how adorable and innocent they looked in their sleep, they'd even choose not to sleep so that they wouldn't have to show that side of themselves. So maybe there were some things that were best kept to one's self.

She walked inside, so quietly she never made a sound in the room and didn't give the boy any reason to wake up. He lay there with both arms tucked beneath his pillow to support his head, burying his cheek hard into the pillow. She sat down on the nightstand and chose to analyze from there for a while, her very light weight body not making any sound or movement against the wood. She left the room a few minutes later, not out of fear that Tala would wake up, but out of the realization that there wasn't much she could do at the time.

_**--Next Morning--**_

"Ah! The last bunch!"

Those were the words Bryan first heard when he woke up that morning, hearing the enthusiasm followed by, "Hey! Give those back!" both loud statements made by the cheerful and loud voice of Tori.

Seeing as this gave himself a reason to get off the sofa, he got up and walked out of the living room and stopped by the kitchen door, watching Kai holding a small bunch of grapes above her head and Tori trying to reach them while still shouting her earlier demand. He rolled his eyes, at the childishness of them both rather than just Kai's. He passed in between the two of them, being tall enough to take them from Kai and kindly hand them to Tori, "Don't tease the child, Kai." He tried to make it sound as humorous as he could, even his dull morning voice.

"Kill joy." Kai mumbled as he watched Bryan sit at table.

"He is not! He's an angel, he gave me my grapes back." Tori smiled happily, picking another grape off the small branch. "Want some coffee Bryan?" she watched his lazy nod, then smiling and walking over to the cupboard to pull the coffee tin out. She heard a groan and then Bryan's head lightly connecting with the table, "What?" she asked confusedly, finishing up the coffee.

"My mind is playing tricks on me, I saw about three or four tins of coffee in there." Bryan rubbed his temples, having caught just a glimpse of the cupboards filled with coffee.

The sound of the way he said it, rather than what he said, made Tori laugh as she set down the coffee in front of him, "You did. The last thing I ever want is to wake up frightened again because Kai realized we ran out of coffee. Kai minus his morning coffee is a terrifying sight." She didn't bother whispering to say that, considering Kai had exited the room to get the shower first once his ex-teammate was awake. "Oh about last night…" she said hurriedly.

Bryan froze a little from sipping his coffee, looking up at her. _'What about last night?' _he thought to himself with misunderstanding.

"I heard from Denzelle that she spoke to you. Sorry if she bothered you, I swear I didn't mean for that to happen and I can't seem to keep her in the same place long enough."

"She's alright, maybe a little too energetic but nothing wrong with her or anything."

Tori smiled and sat down at table, finishing off the grapes as quickly as she could, "But…she likes conversation a lot and she forces conversation on other people…whether they like it or not." She liked the sight from then on, Bryan was smiling, just a little bit but he was smiling nonetheless.

"I didn't mind some conversation. My fault it didn't last longer than it did but conversation makes me tired."

The bit of humor he could add into his voice made Tori smile more. This was the reason she said that dealing with Bryan would be much easier than dealing with Kai. It was because Bryan tried to fit himself into the situation sometimes, he tried to make sure that he didn't stick out as someone who was totally self-obsessed. Maybe he was but he didn't let it show. With Kai he always acted his typical self and that tended to attract a lot of attention to him and when he ever left the room, you could actually tell that he was gone more than you couldn't. Once given the chance, the subject of discussion would end up being him because there was so much to say about what he didn't. With Bryan, he seemed to have the mentality that if he tried his best to act as normal as he could, that it'd make things both easier on him and everyone else. He tried so hard and not everyone could see that.

Tori thought that maybe Kai and Tala saw things differently with Bryan, that he was just trying to cover up all his unwanted feelings but Tori saw it in a slightly more positive way. She admitted it wasn't right for him not to grieve over the loss of someone he cared about but she saw it that he was trying to be normal, trying to take his recovery of his personality a step forward. The problem was that he'd hardly met anyone who had gone through what he went through, how was he supposed to bring himself to talk to his best friends about something that could be just as hurtful to them as it was to him? He didn't know what a normal reaction to the death of a person you kept so close to your heart after all that. But then again what was being normal? What is normality and who decides what normality is? Who were any of them to say what the normal reaction would be? They weren't ever put in his place exactly; Kai almost lost Tori but only almost. There's a fine line between life and death and that finest line could change a person's world. Tori never crossed that line but Tatiana had so who was Kai to say how Bryan should be feeling?

"Hey, are you alright?" Bryan snapped his fingers in front of Tori's face and finally got her attention.

"Huh?" She asked, dumbstruck.

"You blanked there for a minute," He did look a little concerned there for a second, but she couldn't tell for sure, "Are you alright?" he added quietly.

She smiled a little more and stood up, "Yeah, I'm fine, I just think a little too much in the morning and blank a lot like that." She walked over to the counter and opened the cupboard, "You want something for breakfast?"

"No, thanks." Bryan stood up, taking his coffee with him, "I'm just going to go lie down for a little while longer." He walked back into the living room, placed the coffee down on the table and lay down beneath the covers again. He wasn't sure why he felt so cold lately, maybe it was change in atmosphere. He turned onto his back, staring at the ceiling with some sort interest.

"You look sleepy." A voice announced from by the balcony door.

"You seem to show up anywhere, don't you?" Bryan had seen Denzelle show up by the balcony door out of the corner of his eye, "Both Kai and Tori are awake, you know? If you want conversation the two of them are probably better suited for it than I am."

"I've been talking to Kai every day for two years, and Tori for much longer." She moved by his side, sitting on the ground and leaning forward against the sofa where she rested her head, "I'm bored with them."

"That's a cruel thing to say." Bryan mumbled.

Denzelle laughed softly, "They know what I mean." She lifted her hand a little and poked his cheek lightly, "You really do like sleepy, didn't you sleep well?"

"I slept fine." He didn't sound argumentative, just sounded quiet.

**A/N: So this is another long chapter and I hope it was decent. So I brought back the old element that I'm known for putting in my story which is the psychological stuff. I hope this was an enjoyable chapter and I hope that Bryan wasn't too OOC and that this was believable. I actually needed some help with some of the conversation. I was talking to a friend of mine and I'd be like "okay so my OC said this to Bryan, what do you think he'd say back?" and it was alright to ask him because their characters arent too far off. **

**Well tell me what you thought of this and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can. Take care!**


	10. Guilt

_**Chapter 10**_

"Tori! Toooooorriiiii." The bit-beast whined, patting her sleeping Mistress' arm. She pouted more when said Mistress began to stir and glanced up at her hazily, "Bryan's been asleep longer than you have…now he's awake and he won't talk to me."

Tori rolled her eyes before they shut tightly again, making her turn over onto her other side, "Well if you keep waking me up like this, I'm not going to want to speak to you either."

Denzelle sat up onto the bed and shook Tori by her shoulders, "Tori, I'm serious! Kai and Tala are out and he won't talk to me so you need to."

The auburn-haired girl turned over and looked at the serious look on her bit-beast's face, exhaling heavily as she sat up, "Alright. What's the matter with him?" she patiently waited for her friend to reply to her words, shutting the door as she straightened herself out in front of the mirror. It had been a couple of hours ago, just after lunch that Bryan had gone to get some more sleep, Kai and Tala went to see the team and Tori chose to take a nap of her own.

"Well he just won't talk to me…he walked right past me to the balcony and just said he wasn't feeling well."

Tori rolled her eyes a little and stood next to the door, "Well maybe he just needed fresh air. He's been inside here all day; maybe he was just getting fed up off this stuffy apartment and needed some fresh air. Hard to believe this sweetie, but that's actual normal." She turned back to see the concern still shining in the other girl's eyes. "I'll go talk to him, I feel like going for a walk anyway, maybe he'll come with me." She walked out of the room and down to the living room, watching the boy from behind the balcony door as she sometimes did. He was always the same way out there, leaning forward against the railings and with a cigarette in hand. She walked out onto the balcony and up beside him, "Finally awake?"

"Didn't mean to sleep that long." Bryan mumbled grumpily, rubbing his eyes.

She smiled softly, looking up at him and sort of hoping that smile of hers would soothe the tensing in his features, "Well it must mean you needed it then." She put a hand on his shoulder at which he flinches at strongly, "Come on, let's go for a short walk. I actually think that with the number of cigarettes you've had out here you've permanently stained the surrounding air."

"Just go for your walk, I'll be fine here."

How she wished men would just listen to her and what she had to say. Then again, it would've made things too easy, "Both Kai and Tala are out and I'm not going to leave you home alone."

Bryan turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow, "Did Kai tell you about the time I blew up the Abbey's kitchen? Is that why you don't trust me in your house alone?"

Tori laughed at that, her eyes widening a little, "No, he didn't but you're going to tell me about it while we walk." She grabbed tightly onto his arm and dragged him in the direction of the door, "Come on, go and change so we can get some fresh air." After the dragging was done with, things were relatively easy. Bryan changed and the two of them went out for a long walk through the park that wasn't too far from the apartment. "So…this thing about you blowing up the Abbey kitchen…" she smiled once seeing the dismay in his features, "I find that interesting…tell me about it."

Bryan actually smirked a little at this point, going over the memory in his head, "It was an act of boredom and nothing else."

"So?! What happened? Tell me now…you actually got me curious." She latched her arm around one of his at which he held onto her hand like a couple in love would, "I mean…when I'm bored or something I usually just sing, have a long shower, go for a walk, eat till I feel sick…"

"Well I tried to make myself something to eat…hence the kitchen." He gave her a smirk, looking at her out of the corner of his eye for just a second, "I had the day off from training because I was having heart problems so the doctors had let me take a day off from training. I got bored, and when I get bored I get hungry so I went to ask a cook to give me something to eat, if you're real nice to those people they'd be nice to you so I hoped he'd take pity on a kid with a weak heart. No one was there but I was sure I could make something to eat. I found some chemicals in a cupboard that apparently weren't well-suited for the kitchen and I was, like I already said, bored and I wanted to see what'd happen if they were exposed to heat…put on an old gas burner to be precise, and then…"

Tori laughed, "Boom!" she used her arms to exaggerate her thoughts, her arm still entwined with his.

They walked in silence for another minute, Bryan than giving the girl some of his attention when she shook her head, "What?"

She continued to shake her head, a dominant smirk on her face as she opened her mouth to speak, letting the thoughts come to her first, "I…can't believe you put some unknown chemicals on a burner just because you were bored." Her smirk faded after a while though and she looked up at him, "Didn't you get hurt?"

"Strangely enough only the people in the room underneath the kitchen got hurt, and it was only a few bruises and scratches." He patted his chest lightly with his other hand, "But hey, it fixed my heart so that was like the only good that came out of the whole thing."

"Well it made me smile! That's another good outcome, right?" She looked up at him and watched him nod a little, smiling up at him and hoping it would bring a smile to his face, it didn't seem to though as he just generally didn't look at her for a little while. Maybe he was just scared that maybe he'd said too much about himself…or maybe he was just surprised it came out so easily. Whenever Kai and her used to talk about things that used to happen to him, he'd become emotionally and sometimes even physically drained of energy just because of the emotional trauma. Maybe it was just that the explosion had in no way hurt him physically…but maybe the aftermath was more hurtful. "Didn't you get punished or something?"

"You'd get punished just for making a sound in the corridor…I _blew up_ the kitchen. There wasn't any particular punishment though, they just continued their work on me because they were pressed for tine but the lack of sympathy I got after that incident I suppose was my punishment."

Tori's eyebrows furrowed slightly, confusion taking over her features, "Lack of sympathy?" as far as she knew, the whole Abbey was about 'lack of sympathy' so why was this any special?

Tori had seemingly brought them over to a bench and she dragged him down into the seat, something he didn't quite mind considering the things he was saying being difficult without the action of walking, "When getting shots, or going through a painful procedure they'd usually give you a drug just to ease the pain, even if just by a little bit, or when that wasn't possible, they'd just touch your arm kindly to try to soothe you," Tori noted him doing that same thing onto his own arm as he said that, "But after the explosion they didn't do that for me any more, they were just cold and heartless. I thought it was a new rule Boris handed out to the doctors but I'd found out that they were still fine with everyone else."

The girl buried her face temporarily in Bryan's muscled arms, unable to come up with something good to say about all that he'd opened up to her about. Although, the action had apparently made him feel good, as though he were happy that someone listened to him.

"You know…Kai did some really stupid things as a kid too, or has he not told you that?"

She sensed the hint of childishness in his voice; it made her happy because she learnt a new side of this man recently, that he was a tease and great at entertaining a person if given the chance. She beamed happily, looking up at him with wide eyes like a child waiting for her teacher or mother to tell her a story. So he told her, not just one, but about six. From Kai sneaking around the Abbey just for the adrenaline rush, yelling back at guards for the silliest of things, to sneaking out of their bedroom one night to go to the kitchen to get sweets and random food he could find because it was Tala's birthday and he wanted to celebrate some way. Almost all of these ended with Kai getting caught. At the same time, Bryan was quick to point out the boy never got into trouble for much of these things. He was the grandchild of the benefactor so there was rather little that Boris or his guards could do without permission. It made quite a lot of sense too, Tori already knew that the majority of trauma that Kai suffered was from what his grandfather had inflicted on him, rather than what Boris had.

After a while of sitting there then, things had gone a little silent. Bryan was deep in thought, as Tori had expected and the little auburn-haired girl just sat close beside him in silence since if he wanted to talk then he could but in the meantime she'd give him some time to think. "Ne, Bryan, I want to go on the swing." She mumbled after a while, getting up and running over to a now vacant swing. She sat down on the leather strap, gripping the chains tightly in her hands and skidding her feet in the sand to get her moving. Once she was moving high enough and fast enough, she saw Bryan come and stand beside her, leaning with arms crossed against the iron bars. "You could've remained sitting down if you wanted." She reminded him.

Bryan shrugged though, "Kai tells me you're accident prone…if I go back to him with his bruised and beaten up girlfriend he may think I chose to grieve in the wrong way or something."

Tori pouted a little at the sound of that, speeding up on the swing, "I'm not _that_ bad! And besides, Kai and Tala are just worried about you."

"I will get over it eventually, they have to realize that."

Her feet dug into the ground hard to force herself to a stop, "It's not something you can magically get over Bryan. Grieving…it's important, it's healthy and most importantly…it's normal. Isn't that what you're most afraid of? How normal it is?"

Bryan smirked, the gaze from his eyes firmly locked with the ground, "You outsiders need to stop assuming that us Abbey kids are a bunch of tough proud guys who wouldn't ever show emotions to the people around them. Just because it was like that with Kai, it doesn't mean it's like that with all of us."

The teenage girl swung at her highest again, "Well then," she only spoke when she was close to the ground, "when you give me a reason not to think you're that kind of guy…then I'll stop thinking that."

"They've been trying too hard to make me feel better, especially Tala." She had slowed down on the swing, giving her more of a chance to stare at him as he spoke, making him shift his weight uncomfortably, "It's good that they want to help and all but they have to realize it's just something I should do on my own."

"I think that's a stupid thing to say." Tori informed him, now swinging much lower to the ground, "Getting over someone is something really painful…and when its death, regardless of who it is…it doesn't make it any better." She skidded to another stop, moving close to him and lifting his chin just a little with her index finger so he'd finally look at her, "Don't be some stupid teenager that thinks he can solve things all by himself because you really can't do that, no matter how hard you try."

Bryan pulled his head back a little, off her finger at least before rounding the metal bars and walking in another direction and hearing her follow, "Don't you just think they've been trying too hard? Like what did they offer you to make my favorite meal?"

Tori groaned at that, grabbing onto his arm, "I swear on my short life I didn't know! They told me nothing and it was just a coincidence." She smiled triumphantly after though, looking up at him, "I guess I can just look at a person and know what they like."

"You're just a little big headed aren't you?"

"I am not." She pouted that sweet pout she was known for and then catching sight of something else not far from them, "I'll bet I can guess your favorite ice cream flavors too." She pointed in the direction where a bright pink ice-cream truck had stopped for some kids, she then let go of him and walked backwards to it and still looking at Bryan who stared at her strangely for her rather strange and childish behavior. She caught his hand and dragged him quicker in the direction of the ice-cream truck, "I think…" she began in a childish tone, "you might like mint ice-cream…but with a scoop of chocolate." She smiled a little when his eyes almost bulged out of his head, "You don't like too much mint, tastes too strong for you."

He pulled out of her hold and began walking faster so there was no need for her to drag him, "How do you know this stuff?" he watched her shrug a little, a victorious smirk on her features before she turned and ran to the truck to get the ice-cream she clearly had been craving. He seemed to have seen no need to go after her and just sat down on a bench, waiting for her to get back. He focused primarily on the ground as he went over a lot of the things he'd said to the other girl earlier.

At this point he wasn't quite sure if he had said too much, but in the least it would have been something to get Kai to stop worrying. He was sure that the his friends would find some comfort in the fact that he opened up a little bit to someone. It had been difficult for him to do, but he had managed to say a few things, and he'd found that to a certain extent he was okay with saying things to her. She didn't seem to be bothered that he was talking a lot but he still had the feeling that he should've just shut up, stop talking and maybe listen to what she had to say. He wasn't sure why it was so easy to talk to her, or Denzelle but he did, he found that talking to the both of them was something normal, something that was casual and not as intimidating as when he talks to his friends.

Tala has grown to understand a lot about the way he feels about some things, usually he makes him talk, then gives him some advice or some little talk and then gives him the peace and relaxation he'd be craving for. Kai tended to be mostly the opposite, hence the reason why Bryan would very rarely talk to Kai about any of his problems. Kai tended to worry about him a lot more, Bryan was the youngest of the three and so Kai always took the initiative of taking care of him when needed. He would usually persist in asking what was wrong with him, he'd offer his help and offer him every solution he could probably think of. Tala would at least give Bryan his space, Kai knew what Bryan was capable of if left alone for too long.

"Here."

Looking up he saw Tori handing out to him a carton cup with mint and chocolate ice-cream while she ate her own off a cone, "I didn't want anything."

She placed the ice-cream on his lap and sat down cross-legged beside him, "It didn't matter what you wanted…it mattered what you needed and in actual fact, you needed something to cool off, and some sugar, ice-cream does both." She didn't bother looking at him, choosing just to eat her own ice-cream without making him feel forced to eat his own. "You need to stop being so tense, you know that, don't you?"

"Do you know how many people have actually told me that?"

Tori smiled, "I assume quite a few?" glancing at him she saw how serious he looked and after finishing up her dessert she squeezed his shoulder as supportively as she could. "Let's get home, I still need to make dinner." She grabbed onto his arm, and seeing he wasn't uncomfortable with it, she caught onto his hand too and squeezed that tight. The walk home was then quiet, Bryan staring at the ground and Tori being her excited self and looking around as they walked. Once they got to the apartment Tori was about to head up the stairs but Bryan stopped suddenly, her shoulder almost popping out of its socket as her arm was still incased in his. "What gives?"

Bryan let go of her and he smiled softly up at her, something he hadn't done in a bit, "I'm going to walk around for a little while longer. I won't be very long, I promise." Before she had a chance to protest, which she most certainly would have, he walked off in the opposite direction. He walked around for just about an hour, just choosing random streets and secretly hoping he didn't get lost in the foreign country. He'd only been out for an extra hour, but it was enough to exhaust him. Upon getting back he was about to walk up the stairs when he noticed the overstuffed mailbox. He tugged at them, staring at the large amount in his hand just as he was about to move to walk up the stairs.

"What are you doing?"

He found Tori standing behind him, he knew how it looked but he just answered honestly, "Your mailbox was full, I was going to bring your mail up for you." He then raised an eyebrow at her, "What are you doing back out?"

Tori walked past him, smirking softly as she sensed some concern in his tone, "I needed some more things for dinner." She replied, lifting the bags of groceries for him to see. At the sight of them, Bryan took two of the heaviest bags from her, offering to help her carry all the things up the stairs. "The others are still with the team so you're still pretty limited on company, you can watch TV, talk to Denzelle but I'm pretty sure I can chat, listen and cook at the same time if you're still up for that."

Bryan shook his head a little, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, "I'm just going to go have a shower if you don't mind."

Tori smiled and nodded as she unpacked the rest of the groceries, "Sure, go ahead." He disappeared from the room after she said that and she proceeded to make dinner for the other three. She had heard sounds from the other room though, walking in there and finding Tala lying down on the ground in front of the TV. She crouched down beside him, shaking his shoulder carefully, "Hey, Tala." He was sitting up in under a minute of her shaking him, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…fine, why not?"

"Aside from lying on the ground in the living room?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I fall asleep in front of the TV all the time."

"On the floor?" Tori shook her head of that question, currently finding it unimportant, "I didn't know you were here. Where's Kai?"

The redhead was still wiping sleep out of his eyes but worked up his answer from what he could remember, "Ray is sick with the flu, Kai didn't want me to catch anything 'cause of my low immune system so he sent me back home."

Tori pat his shoulder and pulled him up lightly by his forearm, "Get up, you shouldn't be sleeping on the floor, you know? It's not that comfortable, I'm sure."

Tala laughed, patting her shoulder at the same time and took a seat on the sofa, trying to make himself comfortable against a pillow, "At least there's a carpet…trust me I've slept on worse floors than that." He placed his head down on a pillow and shut his eyes again, possibly with the intention of sleeping soundly again. He remained that way until he heard the sound of glass meeting glass so close to him, he then saw Tori had placed a glass of water in front of him on the table. "Thank you."

"You'd be more comfortable in bed, why don't you go get some sleep there? I'll come and wake you up when dinner's ready."

"I'm fine here, really. I'm not even sick or anything, just tired."

Tori nodded and went back to making dinner for everyone, assuming that without Kai there with her, there was not much arguing she could do with Tala. She didn't know his character in the slightest, she didn't know if he'd cover up being sick like Kai would or Bryan would. In any case, she tried to keep an eye on him at times when the heating food didn't need too much of her attention. Dinner was fine for the lot of them, Bryan was silent for most of it until Kai asked what he did all day. Tori tried to help Bryan out, being helpful enough by answering the questions which caused the younger boy to stutter. Tala's strength was getting worse, so Kai tried to convince him to have an early night and when he didn't listen, Denzelle tried to convince him and apparently succeeded. Kai fell asleep in the middle of watching a movie and Tori was about to join him in that state. Thankfully, she'd woken up in time and went to bed.

_**--Next Morning--**_

The whole morning was slow for everyone as most people chose to sleep in. Except Kai naturally, who chose to remain out on the balcony and have light and enjoyable conversation with Denzelle before she decided she was getting tired and wanted to get back into her blade before she collapsed or lost all strength. Kai couldn't figure out why everyone was so tired. Tori was sleeping in like she usually would on a day like this, Bryan was probably having a bad week and he didn't question his decision to stay sleeping on the sofa for the largest part of the day. Tala was possibly sick, he'd seen him white the day before and so he might've preferred sleeping in than doing anything else. He'd checked on him when he'd woken up, he'd checked on everyone in actual fact but Tala was important, he wanted to make sure he didn't have a fever or something because he knew that Tala always needed quick medical attention whenever he got sick. He was okay, possibly a couple of shades lighter but he'd forgotten what the Russian winters could do to someone's complexion so it could've just been that. He'd seen no reason to check on Tala again when he was going back to his bedroom, he just took a quick glance at Bryan on the living room sofa, and then made his way to his room to check on his beloved girlfriend.

She was sleeping peacefully, the look on her face childish as it sometimes did. He found that look cute, lucky for him that he saw it when she was awake too. She'd once mumbled that he looked really peacefully when he slept, he'd only been pretending to be asleep though and had heard her say it. He wasn't bothered by it, maybe he was bothered by the fact that she found him a lot cuter in his sleep rather than when he was awake. She was different though, there wasn't all that much difference between her being asleep and being awake. Maybe she just argued less when she was asleep which he was extremely thankful for.

He slid beneath the covers, careful so that he hopefully wouldn't wake her up since she was so clearly enjoying her rest. He'd long given the team the day off today, maybe in some part of his mind he knew that nobody would be up for any training. Ray was still sick and Max wanted to spend some time with his mom who had came to visit. You'd think she'd know better than to visit little before another tournament but he supposed it was just a mom thing to show up at random and awkward times. The day off would've done them all some good. He himself was still trying to get over his excessive sleeping in the hospital, so finally his sleeping pattern was getting better. Max was visiting his mom, Ray was sick and would probably relax, Tyson…he didn't quite know what Tyson would do but he'd probably make the best out of having a day off. Assuming the other two would be okay, he was hoping to take them out for a bit. Tala enjoyed going out for a walk yesterday but Kai had seen little of Bryan, still concerned about him even though he'd been told that he had a great day and had had fun talking to Tori.

He'd been surprised hearing Bryan talk so highly of his girlfriend. It was difficult for Tori not to get along with people but she had a tendency to get on some peoples nerves due to her being so nosy and her habit of bugging people into talking so she expected her to get on Bryan's nerves a little at that they wouldn't hit it off so easily when left alone together. Apparently they had though, he wasn't sure why it happened, or how for that matter but he couldn't say he wasn't glad because to some extent it meant that Bryan was feeling better, and at the same time, the last thing he wanted was for Tori and Bryan to get into a fight. Tori was strong, but Bryan with that well known temper of his would squash her in a second.

He scooted a little closer to his girlfriend and looked at her properly. She looked so sweet and innocent, mostly childish like that. She was curled up in a ball and facing him, both her hands clasping at the sheets tightly and holding them to her chest. He sometimes wondered why she did that in her sleep, it wasn't like he was going to assault her or anything but sometimes she just got really uptight, despite the look on her face still being kind and peaceful. She was so cute and childish sometimes. She reminded him of a child with her hyperactivity at times, and that kind heart of hers. He always felt too mature, but sometimes she sparked a little childishness in him too, a feeling that when it was just the two of them he could overreact and be as childlike as he wanted to.

_**--Flashback--**_

_Kai's fingers were distractedly tracing little circles on Tori's stomach as he kept on reading in the rock magazine Tori had brought him from the convenience store earlier that evening as he'd claimed there was nothing decent to read in the house. Tori's phone started ringing and Kai started to get up to get it since his magazine was lying on top of Tori's chest, making it a little more inconvenient for the auburn-haired girl to get off of the bed and get it herself._

"_Leave it alone." Tori mumbled, yawning a little as she stretched her muscles slightly and whimpered quietly at the pain of her tense muscles. _

_Kai frowned, but didn't move to get it like she'd asked him not to, "It could be important though…" _

"_Nah, it's just my mother." Tori grinned, letting her hand go through Kai's hair for a second.__ She now loved being able to foresee who was calling, so as not to waste time and just very thankful that Kai bought it for her after she busted hers when she dropped it in the street. _

"_How do you know that?" Kai asked, closing the magazine and throwing it on the ground somewhere beside the bed. Tori gave him a dirty look__, smiling softly. "I'll pick it up later." Kai just grinned a little, blocking out the ringing sound and kissing Tori's navel where her t-shirt had slipped up a little- before shifting up, now lying beside her._

_The ringing had ceased so Kai rolled over and grabbed the phone__ before his girlfriend could appose to his snooping, opening it up._

_**One missed call: Mom. **_

"_How did you know that?" he asked, a little amused._

"_I recognized the ring tone."Tori giggled childishly. _

_Kai laughed, "Your mother has her own ring tone now?" he couldn't believe his childlike girlfriend sometimes, secretly wishing he was as childlike as her sometimes, loving how she was so relaxed and sweet. _

_Tori rolled his eyes, grabbing her cell phone from him quickly, "A lot of people on my contact list have their own ring tones, you know?" glancing at the missed calls list and shutting it again once there were no others. _

"_Really?" Kai frowned a little, lying back beside her and glancing at her. "Why's that?"_

"_So I know who's calling before I get to my phone, so I don't need to rush around looking for my ph__one if I don't want to talk to the person anyway. It's fun." _

"_It sounds like you have too much time on your hands sweetie." _

"_You're just jealous because of my wonderful __new cell phone." She stuck her tongue out at him quickly._

_Kai chuckled. "I'm pretty sure my phone can do that too."_

"_Yeah, but even if it could, I'm sure you wouldn't know how to set it, right?__ It's not like you took the time to read all the booklet thingies that come in the box." _

_Kai glared, "I stand by my statement, you have too much free time. And I'm sorry if I do have a social life."_

"_Kai, you train every day and spend all your free time with me." Tori said, a small grin on her lips._

"_Indeed. You are my very demanding social life." Kai smiled. _

_Tori put her arms around Kai and turned them a little, hugging him from behind as she buried her face into Kai's hair. _

"_So, how do you decide who gets what ringtone, and how do you remember them all anyway?"_

"_You've got to get obvious ones… like my mom gets the regular 'ring ring' cause... you know, it's annoying and old."__Kai laughed out loud at that, he found it strange because Tori's mother was neither that annoying nor as old as that ringtone._

"_And um… I have the best ring tone ever for Ray." Tori said, letting go of Kai and getting up enthusiastically. "Listen." She grinned a little before she started pushing some buttons on the cell until there were quiet meows of a kitten and then the sound of a tiger._

_Kai rolled his eyes at how obvious and weird that one was… and because he didn't want to admit that it was actually kind of cool that she got something planned for everyone._

"_So if Ray calls, which he hardly ever does, there's the sound of a cat and a tiger, that's an original one." He joked. "So, I'm guessing Max has something like a turtle moving in water?"he asked sarcastically. _

"_Nah, Max's is 'Seven Nations Army' by The White Stripes."_

"_Because he likes bass?"_

"_No, because he absolutely hates that song." Tori laughed, falling back against a bunch of pillows. _

"_What did Tyson get?" Kai asked curiously._

"_Some crappy jumpy one that came with the phone, just because when I heard it it reminded me of the jumpiness he gets when he's hyper off chocolate with Max."_

"_Those are all easy, but what do you give other people?"_

"_My manager and Mr Dickinson's got none, my phone only vibrates when they call me, so I can 'forget' to pick up or just not hear it. My dad's got uh..."_

_All of a sudden Kai gasped and turned over. "What's mine?!"_

"_Huh?" _

"_What's my ring tone?" Kai repeated with a smirk._

_Tori just looked at him, keeping suspiciously quiet. She blinked a little repetitively at first, not sure if he was seriously bothered by the fact that she hadn't singled his out yet._

"_It's something mean, isn't it?" Kai mock glared. "Like something ridiculous or something like that. Or you couldn't find a ring tone so it's a dull 'ring ring'… because you think I'm boring." Kai continued his own path of 'logic', knowing Tori hated that and would eventually stop him with an answer.__"I know!" he then said with a big grin on his face. "I called you four times the day before yesterday before you finally picked up, I don't have a ring tone right? I'm right up there with your manger and annoying people you don't want to talk to!" Kai said, in mock __horror__ now, straddling Tori's hips, __demanding__ some sort of attention._

"_You know that's not true." Tori rolled his eyes, he got so funny like this sometimes._

"_Then what is it?" _

_Tori shrugged softly again, a little pout on her lips. She really didn't want to answer that, and at the same time she hated that he doubted her in some way. She knew he was only joking for a while but maybe he was at least a little serious. _

"_I'll find out anyway." Kai said smugly, lying down next to Tori again, the little auburn-haired girl did not deserve to be straddled right now Kai thought as he lifted his hips off of the bed a little, taking his cell out of his back pocket._

_He looked for Tori's name, even though he knew the number off by heart because of the number of times he called it in just one day._

"_Look, there's even a little heart, you see?" Kai asked, showing the display to Tori. _

_Tori chuckled, actually knowing that he'd never put it there intentionally. Max and Tyson had been on Kai's case for ages about him being in love with her, so they put a little heart next to her name on his phone when he'd lost it and he just never bothered to remove it._

"_I hope this actually makes you feel like a bad girlfriend, I'm pretty sure I don't have a heart next to my name in your phone." He teased, pressing the call button._

_Tori just sighed and fingered her phone a little, waiting for it to start vibrating.__As it did Kai took Tori's hand and lifted it so he could look at the display. A picture of him kissing Tori's cheek appeared on the display along with: __**I**__**ncoming call: Kai-kun**__. He didn't even know how she had that picture, one of the team must've taken it. _

"_See, no heart." Kai whispered teasingly, there was no real sting to his voice as his fingers brushed back and forward over Tori's pale wrist. _

_He concentrated on the song now, that, to his great sorrow, he couldn't even recognise it, let alone bash it for being something mean. After a little while the music stopped and he got Tori's voicemail so he hung up and called again. _

"_I don't recognise this…" Kai started to mumble as the song started to play again… until he finally could place it. He still couldn't manage about three calls later. Kai's eyebrows furrowed, he couldn't place it at all, even if he tried. "I know I've heard this somewhere before, but where?" he asked. "Why this one?" was the more important question. _

"_It… it's stupid really…" Tori started and Kai noticed the blush on the other's face. _

"_Oh come on, tell me." Kai whispered, he turned over onto his stomach and looked at her seriously. When it came to things that involved the two of them, he al__ways got this curious and the fact that she was blushing so much just added to his curiousness. _

"_No, you don't even remember." Tori said, sad smile on her soft features._

_Kai was taken aback by the change in his lover, he quickly sat up and kissed her softly, first on her cheek and then on her lips. "Tell me." He repeated seriously._

"_It's 'Sakura Fubuki' it was the song I sang in the cafe I used to work in. I performed the song there the same day you and I kissed for the first time… it's… stupid." Tori mumbled, putting her skinny arms over her blushing face. _

_Kai straddled his hips again. Tori deserved to be straddled now, more so than any other time Kai could remember._

_He took Tori's hands and pulled them off of her face.__"I love you so much, you know that right?" Kai asked seriously, kissing Tori tenderly. _

_Tori nodded softly before kissing Kai back, not letting go of him for the rest of the evening. It was rare he ever said 'I love you' to her face, so she loved it when she heard him whisper it so sweetly like that. _

_**--End Flashback--**_

He moved a little closer to her, if that were possible due to her legs pressed so closely to her stomach in that position but wrapping an arm around her waist all the same. His fingers gently rubbed the small of her back through her nightgown, lifting his body just a little so that he could kiss her lips softly. She just grumbled a little in her slip, mumbling his name before turning onto her back and stretching her legs.

"Kai…" She whined.

"What?"

"Do you do that all the time?" She asked, turning over and cuddling close to him.

"Do what?"

"Kiss me in my sleep…you wake me up almost all the time."

Kai frowned a little, shutting his eyes and possibly attempting to relax or go back to sleep like he'd originally intended before Tori had consumed his thoughts. "Sorry." He heard her groan with displeasure, feeling her moving around beneath the sheets. "It's not like I shove my tongue in your mouth without you knowing it or something."

"I know, it's okay, I just felt like sleeping a little longer." It was strange. Tori always had a distinct smile, so distinct he could actually _hear_ her smile, he knew when that beautiful traditional smile graced her lips, he didn't need to see it, all he had to do was hear her tone of voice and he'd just know. "What else do you do?"

"What?"

"What else do you do when I'm asleep?"

"Nothing. Honestly."

She continued, humming with some satisfaction as she nuzzled her cheek into the pillow and wrapped an arm around him. She liked keeping him close, she liked knowing he was near her. He was never too far away, thankfully. The morning mood brought her closer to him though, her mouth moving to his ear and whispering quietly, "I'm glad you're here, I'm glad you're healthy and…I'm glad you're safe." She moved back a little, impatiently waiting for his eyes to open and hopefully give her some approval to what she said. She did see it, she was gratified for it. He just placed a hand to the back of her head, his long strong fingers entwining in her thin auburn hair before moving her face closer for a quick kiss.

Two years ago, just before Kai met Tori, he was confused by the fact that Bryan enjoyed lying in bed a little longer than usual every morning. He'd speak to Tala online once in a while, and the redhead would tell him that Bryan was in bed with his girlfriend and wouldn't be out of there for another good hour. Kai was just generally confused as to what sort of pleasure Bryan got out of lying in bed for another hour with his girlfriend. There was nothing more than hugging, kissing and cuddling in Bryan's relationship, that much he knew so he didn't quite get what Bryan enjoyed.

Now two years later, Bryan without the one he loved, and Kai with the love of his life, he finally understood the pleasure Bryan must've got out of it. Fine, you weren't doing anything productive for that whole hour but just lying around and being in the company of the person you love so much just sets your heart racing and makes the day just a little bit more worth it. There was nothing extraordinary about starting your day with a little lie-in but if you were in good company, who cared what you really did? Nobody had to do know that someone who was always so productive had 'wasted' an hour just lying there and thinking.

For someone who was so much more uptight than Kai at times, or who was on the same proud level as Kai, Bryan always seemed to have the right mind when it came to romance. If it weren't for the fact that he'd just lost the love of his own life, his reason to keep on living the life he'd tried his best to work on, Kai would ask him for information on what he did with Tatiana. But he knew it'd hurt him too much right now. Kai could easily understand the pain of losing the person you love. He'd never really lost Tori, but he'd come so close to it that he knew Bryan's pain.

At least Kai had known when Tori was about to die, so he had time to comfort her, to make things in her life worthwhile, to just be close to her and treat each day like it'd be the last time he were to see her. With Bryan, no one had any either what was to happen, Bryan wasn't prepared and while Kai took the fact that Tori would die hard for a long time, he always prepared himself for the emotional blow but there was nothing to prepare Bryan. The most Bryan had was Tatiana's foster family to offer condolences, and Tala offering his support. That was it. Kai preparing himself for the pain of losing Tori all alone, had served him a lot more good than the meaningless art of words that people surrounding Bryan offered.

She pressed even closer to him, winding one of her long legs over his and pulling their bodies closer. She tugged at his arms so that they'd rest around her a lot tighter. She didn't care if she stopped breathing as long as she was in his arms. She didn't care if it was his strength that killed her, she just wanted him as close as possible, to hold her till she fell asleep again.

If having Bryan in the apartment had left any sort of impression on Tori, than it was that she was extremely thankful that Kai was safe in her arms for the time being. She never wanted to lose him, ever. But at the same time, having Bryan around caused her great grief…great guilt for what was to come. She knew she'd cause Kai the same pain sometime or another, now if he only knew when so that he could protect himself. There was one letter that really told him when, and she swore on her life she'd never let him see it as long as she was next to him.

_**A/N: Officially the longest chapter in the "People Error" fic. I was beginning to feel bad that "Cats and Dogs" had chapters of about 7,000 and 8,000 words, whereas this one only had of about 4,000-6,000 so I tried to work extra hard on this one. **_

_**Good luck guessing what'll happen next. I will try to update as soon as I can. Thank you all for your patience while I've been suffering with writer's block and forgive me that I took so long with this chapter, I hope that it was at least semi-decent. Take care everyone and **__**please **__**leave a review and let me know what you thought of this. **_


	11. Reasons For Crying

_**Chapter 11**_

Two other days had passed which lead to the final day of Tala and Bryan's stays. Their flight was to leave early the next morning. Kai and Tala had gone out because Tala wanted to say bye to the team and wish them luck for their next tournament. Despite Tala's love for the sport, he chose not to compete for the year, claiming that his most important priority at the time was Bryan, and the younger boy was surely not in the spirit of blading since his girlfriend's death.

Tori had learnt a lot about Tala within the past few days. Denzelle had spent all her free time with Bryan, since Tori so easily had her way with talking to Bryan and getting him to talk to her about his childhood, and even his love life. Tala had apparently been one to tease a little bit about Bryan's romantic relationship so the younger boy would rarely ever open up to him, and possibly felt some sort of relief in talking to Tori instead. Denzelle stayed with Tala the whole time they were almost sure that he had the flu. In the end, it hadn't been the flu at all, but a very minor infection of a cut on his arm. This Denzelle found out from snooping around, and appearing in Tala's spare bedroom when she should've been outside and should've kindly knocked to seek permission for entrance.

Tala did some of his own opening up, to Denzelle rather than Tori. He explained to her that his self-harm had gone on for almost a year, he wasn't sure what originally caused it but he had supposed that it was mostly stress and he hadn't known of ways to channel it. He added that he'd stopped a few weeks before, Denzelle having been able to confirm this just by taking a glance at the wounds and then tending to them, with Tala's permission. The redhead had made her swear not to tell anyone, but the bit-beast couldn't keep a secret for all too long, especially when it came to something like that. She confided in her Mistress, and Tori asked countless times if they should tell Kai about it. Denzelle said they shouldn't; considering the fact that Tala was honest when saying he'd stopped, and that Bryan had already known about the cuts and had just been kind enough not to tell anyone. She claimed that Tala was in no immediate danger, thus making it remain a secret between the two females of the house. By the end of the week, that was one case closed after Denzelle had insisted to Kai that Tala was fine and was just a little stressed out.

Bryan was no open book, but with asking the right questions at the right times, and a little bit of prying here and there, Tori was able to make the boy comfortable enough to talk to her. Denzelle had cultivated the best way to make conversation with him, hints taken from things that Falborg told her and things she assumed from the 'disorder' that he'd been diagnosed with. The two became good friends to an extent. He had no problem sitting at home with her, and she'd sometimes come and sit out on the balcony with him, claiming that she didn't want to leave him all by himself at that time of night. Because of that sort of persistence, he sometimes made himself retire to bed to get some sleep, assuming that the girl would only rest if he was doing so. Tori had become comfortable with him, but at times just a little bit uneasy too. He seemed to ask questions, at the right time and just as casually as she asked his but the ones he asked were tricky for her.

Now she caught him out on the balcony again, a piece of paper in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She went out to join him, beaming happily at first until he turned to her and held out the paper for her to see, suddenly making her face drop. It was another letter from the hospital. The twelfth or so one that had been delivered, this one only having been sent two days ago. His sleight of hand must've been excellent for him to have either taken it when he'd given her the mail at the letterbox or taking it from the kitchen table where she'd left it with the rest while putting the groceries in their places. She went to snatch it from him, but unfortunately for her he was a lot faster than she ever was. Now she finally understood what Kai meant, that Bryan's strength and speed would surprise anyone because he never used it unless absolutely necessary. She assumed this was their idea of 'absolutely necessary'.

"You're sick again…aren't you?" He walked over to the other end of the balcony, folding the paper nicely and placing it in his jacket pocket where it'd be safe. She was unable to answer, he could tell so easily. "You're sick again…and you don't plan on telling Kai." He continued on with this form of logic, adding a little bit more to every part, "You're sick again, you don't plan on telling Kai because you hope that it'd save you both some of the pain."

"That's confidential, Bryan. You have no right to look at that."

"You're going to hurt one of my best friend's…and you're going to do it in one of the most painful ways possible and I have no right?"

She was breathless. Like she'd been running forever. She really had been running for too long. She'd been running for about six months now. "You don't understand this."

"Help me understand then, because you've been a really decent person to me this past week, so I've been out here for these past few hours trying so hard to understand what it is that'd make you do this and I _still_ don't get it."

She could see the hurt in his eyes, it was like looking right at Kai. So she explained. He didn't seem entirely convinced that this was the best way to do things but he didn't judge. He knew that there was no real point in time that he had the ability to judge her for what she chose to do and how she chose to live her life. "Please don't tell Kai." She had a hint of begging in her voice. "Regardless of wanting to look after Kai…that's personal information and you have no right to..."

"I know. I don't have the right to tell him anything." She couldn't really believe what she was hearing, "But I hope you know what you'd be doing to him, I hope you've thought this out all the way through and I hope you don't regret any of this later."

She was shivering, mostly from nerves. She hadn't expected anyone to find out. The secret had been kept for long enough, and then on the final days of Bryan's stay he finds out. She sat back on one of the cold metal chairs out on the balcony, suppressing tears and sobs of guilt. Little had been done so far, but just by having Bryan around her made her feel guilty enough, he didn't have to say anything.

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad, I'm just asking you to think about all this properly because this is something you can't change your mind about later."

She shook her head, the only thing left that existed to her was that voice. All she could do was hear him, she didn't want to look at him, or anything else for that matter, "I can't change my mind another time. This hurts me just as much as it hurts him, and the decision tears me up and..."

"I'm not telling you to change your mind again…not directly at least. I just hope that when you made this decision you thought of everything." She could smell cigarette smoke suddenly when he paused, "You think that if you don't tell Kai…when you die then he will hurt less, because it'll look like you didn't know that you were going to die so you couldn't stop it." He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it tight, "Are you going to be okay? You're not going to…have a panic attack or something, are you?"

She laughed quietly, to herself mostly to prove to herself she still knew how. She looked up at him, smiling softly as she shook her head, "No, I'll be okay." She sat back in her seat when she saw him sit down, "I think that Kai always knew that something was wrong…he's been a little worried about me but I've been careful…I haven't given him much that reason to worry. It only got really really bad one night…that was two months ago."

_**--Flashback--**_

_Kai had awoken suddenly to a violent jerk in the bed. Picking his head up off the pillow, he blinked a few times and tried to clear his vision in the dark room. He saw a shadowed figure dashing out of the room and a few seconds later heard a door slam shut. This finally snapped him out of his sleepy state and he sat up quickly. His head immediately turned to Tori's side of the bed, but all he saw were tossed and messy covers. _

_He quickly tossed the thick blankets that were over him aside and ran into the hallway. The bathroom door was shut, the light shining from beneath the crack and he thought he could hear groans of pain coming from behind the door._

"_Tori? You alright?" He frantically asked as he knocked._

"_Kai go…go away!" he heard Tori groan out._

"_Are you okay in there?" His eyebrows knitted together with some confusion._

"_Go **away**!"_

"_Are you feeling sick? Can I come in?" Kai asked, grabbing the handle and ready to push it open._

"_NO! Kai… I'm…I'm in the bathroom! Privacy **please**!"_

"_But I want…"_

"_Just leave, please!"_

"_Okay if…if you need anything just…yell, I guess." Kai said before walking back into the bedroom._

_He sat there a few minutes on the bed, waiting for Tori to come back out. Every so often he'd wait for her by the bedroom door where he could hear Tori groan loudly, as if in pain. He wanted to run back to the bathroom, but Tori really didn't want him there. But nobody really wants other people around when they're sick, and the bathroom is a rather private place; so he kept his distance and sat patiently on the bed, trying to pretend that the fact that his girlfriend in pain wasn't bothering him. _

_After a little while, he heard the bathroom door click open. Tori came walking into the bedroom holding her stomach; her pale face tear streaked._

"_You alright, honey?" Tori just shook her head hurriedly and sat on the floor where the pressure was to a certain extent comforting, resting her head on the bed. "What's wrong?" Kai asked, concern clearly lacing his words as he moved himself to her side of the bed._

"_My stomach hurts!" she groaned out, nuzzling her cheek hard into the mattress._

"_Are you throwing up?" he asked, kneeling down beside Tori and rubbing her back in slow calming circles._

_Tori just shook her head and moaned in pain again. "Kai…"_

"_Did you eat anything when you got home earlier?"_

"_No, I just slept-** damn it**!" she yelled as she brought her other hand to her stomach while one hand went to her mouth and started crying in pain._

"_Do you want me to take you to the emergency room?"_

"_No, please **don't**!"_

"_Honey, I think you should go if it's hurting you this bad. Maybe it's food poisoning from lunch or something serious."_

"_No! I'm not even throwing up…yet at least."_

"_But something is obviously wrong and it could be serious!" He placed one hand on her shoulder to hold her still, the hand movements on her back still going. _

"_No, I don-**shit**!" she yelled before getting up and running back to the bathroom, slamming the door once again._

_Kai was worried about Tori. What if something was really wrong? You usually aren't doubled over on the floor and crying from a stomach ache. But if Tori wasn't going to go to the hospital, what could he really do to help her?_

_Tori returned from the bathroom after a little while and sat back on the floor. _

"_Kai…please!" she groaned out, softly crying and punching the mattress. "Please make it stop! I don't want this anymore! I can't handle this!"_

"_Well I doubt you ever wanted it in the first place, sweetheart. But I don't know how to help or make it go away. Do you feel nauseous or sick? Or is it just a really bad pain?"_

"_It's a horrible pain, but it's making me feel nauseous."_

"_I could go to the store and get you something that might help, unless you've got something here."_

"_Please…please could you pick something up for me?"_

"_Of course, baby. Anything particular?"_

"_Just…anything! Please."_

"_Alright, honey. I'll be right back." Kai said before kissing the top of Tori's head, picking up some clothes and leaving the room. _

_The auburn-haired girl curled up tighter and lay on the floor, crying hard from the pain. After a few more runs to the bathroom, she finally heard her front door open. A few seconds later she saw Kai appeared in the bedroom._

"_Sorry I took so long sweetie, not many places are open at this hour. I hope this is okay. It covers a lot of symptoms, so it should really help." Kai said, as he quickly sat down on the bed and opened the brown paper bag in his hands. _

_He carefully filled the small cup it came with, using his other strong arm to tug her up a little. "Here, sweetheart. Sit up so you can swallow properly and not spill it."_

"_Thanks." Tori got off the ground and sat on the bed, taking the small cup from him with shaking hands, her considerate boyfriend holding her hands straight while she drank it. She placed her index finger up, pouting as she looked at him, "One more thing…?" she requested softly, a guilty look in her eyes. _

"_Sure sweetheart, what is it?" He placed his cool forehead against her hot one, pecking at her lips lightly to comfort her. _

"_There's a dark blue box in my medicine cabinet…they're good for headaches…"_

"_Say no more." Kai left and came back promptly, bringing with him a glass of water and the box like she'd asked. "I have never seen you take pain so hard before…usually you're unbreakable with these sorts of things." _

"_I'm so sorry about all this trouble, Kai. The pain's just really bad and I…" _

"_Don't think about it. Just concentrate on relaxing and getting better." He kissed her forehead and tucked her in beneath the blankets. "You know as well as I do sometimes even the strongest people get to feel a lot more pain than their bodies could handle…it's okay to need someone to take care of you once in a while." _

"_You take care of me too much Kai. I wish one day you'd let me do stuff like this for you." She writhed a little beneath the covers, Kai then holding her still momentarily._

"_Just relax." _

_The night then consisted of Tori making frequent runs to the bathroom and Kai staying up, making sure she was fine every time. Kai barely slept a wink. He spent the majority of the night whispering comforting words into his girlfriend's ear and softly rubbing her stomach while giving her sweet little kisses on her cheek and neck; trying to sooth the pain that was underneath the skin. Occasionally he'd ask her if she was sure she didn't want him to take her to the emergency room, and every time it was the same reply of 'hell no'. _

_But it wasn't much help at all. Tori still spent the night crying and whimpering and whining in pain. The sun was rising before Tori was finally able to fall asleep and stay that way. _

_Kai thought it best if Tori didn't go to practice that day. First of all, Tori had barely gotten any sleep; and second, he wasn't sure if it was just a 24 hour bug or something more. Tori needed all the rest she could possibly get, and he didn't want to risk spreading anything between their teammates. _

_**--End Flashback--**_

"I could tell he was really worried about me…I told him that I went to the doctor the next day when things got better and I told him that it was just a bad bug."

"Do brain tumors actually effect the stomach?"

"Not really…a symptom is nausea and vomiting but that's a sign of a lot of things. The last thing he would think of was me being sick with a damn tumor again."

"Is dying like that…painful?"

Tori looked at him with confusion, blinking at his sudden question, "Maybe…but I don't know…I don't really care. Last time…I was about a week or two away from the time the doctors gave me, it wasn't really that painful at the time." She shifted uncomfortably, "Why are you asking me this?"

"I was just a little curious…that's all."

Tori stood up and entered the living room, "You should rest…you've got a long night ahead of you what with travelling and all." She walked fast paced to her bedroom and got beneath the covers in a hurry. She fell asleep within seconds, having forgotten how tired she actually had been. She was pulled out of her sleep a little later though. Kai had just arrived home and went looking for her. When she opened her eyes he was sitting right in front of her, his hand on her thigh and leaning forward to peck a kiss against her forehead. "Had fun?" she glanced at her clock to check how long she'd been asleep, roughly an hour and a half.

"Yeah, it was good…" Kai stroked her hair back, seeing her still drowsy, "We just ordered pizza for dinner, you don't need to cook, so you can go back to sleep if you're tired." She loved that he was so loving this way. She never expected him to be like this in the very beginning but the more into the relationship they were the more he adapted and learnt.

_**--Flashback--**_

_Kai watched Tori go to the door after they heard someone knocking on it hard and he watched her from the kitchen door. There's a man delivering flowers._

"_You have the wrong place," she says, immediately; like it's impossibly for someone to offer a girl like her flowers. _

_The guy validates the address and after a quiet conversation, or argument, between them, Tori finally took the flowers. "They're from your lover." the guy comments with a small smile._

_Tori shut the door and Kai slips back into the kitchen, pretending he hadn't seen the delivery guy. "Someone sent you flowers?" he asked, having seen them in her hands as she read the card. _

_She looks up immediately at the sound of that and moves the flowers away from her on the counter. Her face is apprehensive and she doesn't say anything at all. Kai moves a little closer to look at them._

"_Who would want to send you flowers?" That sounded a lot harsher than he intended it to be._

"_I don't know, but they're pretty and they smell good." Tori bit down hard on her lip. _

"_They do." He smiled softly but she seemingly didn't see it. "Tori…"_

"_I'm sorry. I don't know who it's from. You're not mad are you?"_

"_I don't know." He smirked a little, walking away to the furthest counter, making sure she didn't see it. _

"_Kai! It's not my fault. "_

_Kai laughed at her a little, getting up and sitting on the counter, "Tori, **I** sent them to you."_

"_You…" she grabs them and moves them over to the sink, unfortunately for her, even closer to Kai, ready to busy herself with them._

"_You should have **said** something. I was freaked out!" She unwrapped them from the paper, flattening it out beside on the counter, she had to admit, even the paper was pretty. _

"_It was funny to see your reaction."_

_She turned the water on and started to cut the stems under the water. Maybe he should stop commenting, considering she had scissors in her hands and she was pms-ing a lot. _

"_It's not funny Kai. Maybe I just won't make you dinner, how about that?" _

_Kai ignored that statement…he wasn't bothered really, if she refused to cook, he could always just pick up the phone. He stood behind her, wrapping a strong arm around her waist. "You like them, though?" _

"_Go get me the vase from the nightstand." He sighed and walked off, coming back with the black vase like she'd asked. He stood beside her, resting against the counter as he watched her smile while she beautifully arranged the flowers in the vase. _

"_You know…I'm a girl, but I don't particularly like flowers but…I love the fact that you tried." _

_Kai shook his head, standing behind her again and wrapping his comforting arms around her in a protective embrace, "I didn't mean to argue so much yesterday and…the fact that it was Valentine's day **completely** slipped my mind." _

"_I don't care about days like that…they're nice but I don't care. It's the arguments that scare me…" _

"_Don't…don't let it scare you then." _

_Tori rested her head back to look at him, "You scare me when you shout." _

"_I know…I'm sorry, I'll work on that." _

"_And I'll work on my pms-ing moods." _

_Kai laughed, "That's something normal…don't try to work on it, you might make it worse." He kissed her cheek and walked away, "If it getting worse is **actually** possible." _

"_Hey!" Tori laughed. _

_**--End Flashback--**_

"I guess I just needed to rest a little, I was a bit sleepy but I'm fine now." The last thing she wanted right now was to leave Tala, Bryan and Kai alone in a room together. If Bryan said something to Kai while she wasn't there…

Kai stood up to give her room to get out of bed, standing by the door, "Well I ordered your favorite in case you were hungry…" he peeked inside the bathroom, seeing her walking to the door while brushing her teeth.

She rinsed and turned to him, latching her arms around his neck, "You're an out of this world and amazing boyfriend, you know that don't you?"

Kai smiled tenderly, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck with care a few times, "Quit it." He whispered in her ear.

She smiled back, he couldn't see it very well because of her head against his chest, giving his collar-bone a few kisses too, "Ne, you know I love you, right?" her arms around his neck tightened a little more, as though desperate to hear his answer.

"Of course I know…"

Tori smiled a little more, stepping back, holding tight onto his hands, "You'll always remember that, right?"

"What's the matter with you?"

Tori just smirked, pretending that this was just some sort of joke and she wasn't being as serious as she really had been, "I just wanted to make sure you know how much you mean to me."

A smirk overtook the features of the Russian, stepping forward to place a hand on her hip, giving her a light kiss on the corner of her mouth, "I already know…you remind me every day and I'm _not_ going to forget." He tugged on her hand a little, "Come on, Tala's getting tired and he wants to eat so he could get some sleep before they have to leave to go to the airport."

So they spent the whole evening eating and talking casually, Tori just a little on edge that Bryan was going to spill her secret but he'd seemingly stayed true to his word and said nothing of the sort, just making the occasional joke and remained talking to her like they were still good friends, which it seemed like they still were. Tala fell asleep on the ground after a while, Tori got upset that he slept in such an uncomfortable place but Bryan assured her that it was normal and that he'd slept on much worse than that. After Tala had fallen asleep, most conversation shifted to Tori; it mostly was Kai making fun of her, Bryan usually laughing and occasionally defending her and her intelligence which Kai sometimes seemed to question.

Kai went to bed at about two in the morning, Tori stayed awake for a lot longer though. She started off by putting Tala's head on a pillow and a blanket over him, telling Bryan that if she was going to leave him to sleep on the floor than she might as well have made it a little more comfortable. The next thing she worked on was Bryan, they sat up and talked for a few minutes, nothing harsh was said and no awkward conversations came up.

Bryan couldn't bring himself to fall asleep just yet, claiming he'll just get some sleep on the plan. He said that that was where Tala and him differed; Tala didn't usually sleep on plans, usually because he was feeling nauseated or he'd just have a headache and didn't manage to relax but Bryan was different and when travelling he slept a lot more.

Tori could tell there was a little more to the story than that and pried at him to tell her what was bothering him. She knew that what was on his mind was nothing to do with her, hence why she thought it good enough reason to pry at him to talk to her. She claimed that, "if he weren't going to talk to anyone else about it, he might as well talk about it to someone he'll never have to see again". She wasn't sure if it was that statement that got him talking, but whatever it was, he talked.

Originally, the reason Bryan didn't want to talk about it was because it didn't concern just him, it concerned his teammate. While he not only disliked talking about his teammate, he also resented the idea of talking about his teammate while said teammate was asleep in the room. So to make Bryan more content with talking, she moved them out onto the balcony. The concerns were mostly about Tala and his recent habits…or really not so recent, as they were just recent news to Bryan.

He'd discovered possibly a month or two before visiting Japan and Tala just explained everything to him. Tori didn't quite understand Bryan's concern for a while, considering they both knew that Tala stopped inflicting pain onto himself. As their conversation on the subject got deeper, she realized that Bryan was just like her, he probably even worried about his close friend more than she did about her own. He was self-loathing for a while…blaming himself for not realizing sooner that Tala needed help with dealing with the stress. He didn't give Tori much chance to talk him out of the self-loathing since at the end of that he went on about how he didn't have any thing to distract him and that he was going to try his best to help his friend. The determination was great in Tori's eyes, even though it wasn't entirely healthy to take your mind off things you yourself should be dealing with, which in this case was the death of his girlfriend, she still found it good that Bryan knew his priorities and was even more impressed when he said that he'd still deal with things properly.

The auburn-haired girl even asked him why the redhead slept so much during the day. Her childish and concerned question made the Russian laugh. He replied that "Tala is probably the only human on Earth who still suffers from jetlag a month after travelling."

At about four thirty in the morning, Bryan was getting tired, something Tori could tell by him always rubbing at his eyes and talking with his head on his arms on the table. This made Tori's motherly instincts kick in. She was starting to drag him off to the spare bedroom, considering Tala wasn't using the bed there but Bryan chose to stay in the living room. His reasons being that the sofa was comfortable enough for him, and that he wanted to keep an eye on Tala just in case something happened, and that that way he'd remember to wake the redhead up when it was time to start getting ready. He only had an hour or two to sleep, so he said that there was no sense in "ruining a nicely made bed for that, especially since he didn't know how to make a bed properly."

Regardless, when Tori checked on Bryan a few minutes later, he still wasn't asleep so she chose to sit down at the foot of the sofa and talk to him for about fifteen more minutes until she could take his mind off his friend, reminding him of his exhaustion before he fell asleep.

Kai was a little surprised when she got into bed so late, getting up and immediately asking her if she wasn't feeling well or something. Tori shrugged it off, telling him that it was nothing like that. Kai insisted she tell him what it was though, and Tori just simply explained that Bryan couldn't sleep so they talked for a while. Kai saw no harm in that, something Tori was thankful for. She always thought from the very beginning that he'd be the jealous type, there was the rare time that a guy would look at her and Kai would give him his signature death-glare but she never thought much of it. He probably knew that she was always going home with him anyway.

The two slept considerably well then, their bodies extremely close to one another as though they wouldn't let each other go, even in their sleep. They had accepted the fact that they had separate lives when awake; Tori had recording songs and Kai was never around for that. The only bit they had in common was beyblading and the team, and even then, they'd both tried hard to keep attention off their love life. So in the end, sleeping was the only time the two were really that close to each other. It was just coincidence that this week they got to have a bit more time together, mostly because Tori let Kai off training because of his health and because of his friend's only being around for a week. Then Tori found other reasons to stay home.

At six thirty Kai got up first to go and wake up Bryan and Tala, then going and having a quick shower. Upon getting back out of the bathroom, Tori was getting up to have a shower of her own. "You don't need to come with us to the airport, you can go back to sleep."

Tori picked some clothes out of her wardrobe and walking past him to the bathroom, "Nah, I want to go check on the others this morning. I still haven't met Max's mom after all these years and he wants us to meet. And I really want to check on Ray too."

Kai spent the time that Tori was in the shower sitting on the bed and checking his mail on her laptop. Tori stepped out a few minutes later, towel drying her long auburn hair in the mirror. Denzelle walked hurriedly into the room, slamming the door tightly behind her which gained everyone's attention. At that they noticed her strange breathing pattern, especially when she caught onto Tori's shoulders, "What's the matter with you?" she watched the bit-beast jump on the bed, Kai instinctively catching the laptop before it went flying off the mattress.

Denzelle exhaled, rolling her eyes up to look at Tori, speaking with another deep breath, "Have you ever seen Bryan shirtless?" she picked up the nearest paper she could get her hand on, using it to fan her flushed face.

"I shouldn't be hearing this." Kai groaned as he rolled his eyes, shutting the laptop and shoving it under the bed.

"To hell with Kai!" Tor exclaimed, jumping in Kai's place on the bed and getting close to Denzelle, "Details, details." She beckoned, pulling her bit-beast closer. "Does he look better than Kai?"

"Wait till I'm out of the room!" Kai silenced Denzelle with a death glare, making a break for the door and exiting quickly, just as he heard whispers and squeals.

"What's with all the screaming?" Bryan asked, stepping out of the spare room while tugging on his jacket.

Kai smirked a little, still walking to the kitchen with Bryan close behind, "I believe they're squealing about that six-pack of yours, you should probably cover up more when around girls. You probably didn't know though, Denzelle's creepy like that."

"Damn…even here."

"_Especially_ here!" Kai exclaimed as he began to make coffee, "My friend, you are in Japan, the country where fangirling was invented and perfected." He set a cup of coffee down in front of his friend, joining him at table, "I probably should've warned you about all that from the second you got here."

"Maybe you should've."

"Tala better hurry with his shower, otherwise the two of you are going to be late." Kai glanced at his watch, getting up again to prepare Tala a cup of coffee so that it'll be ready.

Bryan had finished the last of his coffee, placing the mug in the sink, "What's with Tori's coffee? There's something so different about it." He didn't know why he even voiced that, but it just came out as the taste still lingered.

"I've been trying to figure it out for years…she won't tell me what the hell it is but as long as she keeps making it that good, then I don't need to know."

Tori walked in at that moment, "Morning Bryan," she greeted with a smile.

"Morning." Bryan returned just a hint of a smile, then jerking his thumb over his shoulder, "I'm just going to put the bags by the door." He disappeared quick enough, Tala then joining Kai and her in the kitchen.

In due time, the taxi arrived downstairs and Kai went to take the bags down, telling Tori to say her byes and not to get too emotional. Those words didn't help very much because Tori already had tears stinging her eyes just by looking at the two in front of her. She moved to embrace Tala, giving him a light kiss on the cheek, "Now don't do anything silly, okay? The deal you made with Denzelle only stands as long as you don't start again. You have a good friend Tala…Bryan is amazing so don't be afraid to talk to him." She saw him smile a little, then nod against her shoulder.

"It was good seeing you, Tori. It's great to finally understand what Kai really means in his e-mails, you're an amazing girl." He pecked a kiss on her cheek lightly, smiling and walking out the door with the last of the bags.

She turned to Bryan, crossing her arms tight around her pathetically thin frame and brushing her damp cheek against her shoulder to brush off all the tears. She bit down on her lip and nodded slightly, "Yeah…so I know hugs aren't your thing but…" The tears in her eyes when she looked up at him probably beckoned him closer because in less than a second of that there was a light smirk on his features and one of his amazingly strong arms around her waist with the other one on her shoulder. "Thanks for everything. And…I'm sorry I was such a pain in the beginning but…I was worried and stuff and…"

"I get it. Stop trying to explain…I understand, I understand everything so don't worry about it." He smiled a little when he could see more tears streaming down her cheeks, "I'm sorry…that things didn't work out better than this. I hope that…in the end everything works out okay…for everyone."

"When this is all over…you'll look out for Kai for me…right? 'Cause I know he was on your case about grieving but…"

"I know." Bryan let go of her and stood up straight, wiping her tears off, "I know, I'll handle everything as best I can. Right now, you need to focus on yourself." He bit down on his lip, "I still wish you'd change your mind…because I don't want to see someone as great as you hurting my friend so badly. But you've already changed your mind once for him…and if it wasn't worth it the first time…then the second time would be no better so it's your choice, it's your life." He squeezed her hands tight once, then letting go and smiling softly, caringly, "Till then…take care of yourself."

"Nutmeg."

Bryan turned round hurriedly, raising his eyebrows, "What did you call me?"

Tori giggled through the tears that were streaming down from her cheeks, "No...the ingredient I put in the coffee is nutmeg."

Bryan smiled softly, she was sweet up until the end and the guilt still showed in his eyes, "Thanks, I'll remember that." He left a moment after that, not even giving her the last word, the last memory he wanted to have of her was her feeling guilty because she was such a kind person, the last memory he wanted of her was to see those tears on her cheeks, because she was scared. His last memory of her, he wanted to remember that she was human, she was a decent human being.

The girl shut the front door and ran to her bedroom, fixing herself up in front of the mirror till she decided she looked good enough to go outside. She picked up her handbag from by the bedroom door, put everything she needed inside and sped out the door, in desperate need of some fresh air.

She stayed out till about eleven thirty. She walked around for a while, then visited the team like she said she would. Ray was a lot better, at least not stuck in bed or anything of the sort. Tyson was out with Hilary apparently, leaving Tori and Ray to comment about the relationship childishly. Max and his mom showed up a little later, so Tori and her were finally introduced. They spoke for maybe an hour, then she brought up the subject of Kai and Tori decided she should get home to see if he had arrived from the airport yet.

Her walk home was enjoyable, she stopped to buy some flowers on the way there, thinking that some fresh flowers would look lovely in the bedroom again. She took the longest way home through the park, getting home and kicking off her shoes by the door and chucking her keys on her handbag. "Kai?!" she didn't find him in any of the front rooms, assuming he was either getting some more sleep or hadn't arrived home yet. She got into the bedroom, seeing Kai sitting there, "Hey sweetie, I was calling you." She noticed the gloomy look on his face, causing her to hurriedly sit opposite him at the foot of the bed, "What's wrong?"

Kai bit on his lip, then looking up at her with just a hint of humor on his features, "You know…Bryan used to have this…talent for writing. Even in his e-mails you could tell. He also has a good sleight of hand…so it wasn't that surprising that I found a letter in my jacket pocket on the way home." He threw a paper into her lap, "Take a look, I'm sure you'll find the other letter attached to his quite recognizable."

She didn't need to look at it, she already had a really good idea of what was written. Bryan's apology earlier wasn't just aimed at her misfortune for being ill, it was aimed at his betrayal. "Kai…"

"So I get that the hospital has been calling you back for more surgery, that's apparently their twelfth letter to you. So really, answer honestly, how long have you been sick again?"

Tori got off the bed, she didn't want to be so close to him. She leant back against the wall, just beside the door, "Six months."

"And you planned on just dying? You didn't intend on telling me or something? You'd think that by now I would've earned some sort of worthiness or at least trust. What did you think I'd do? Beat you up or something because you got sick again? You're standing there like you're scared of me. Answer me!"

"You don't get it Kai."

"Then explain!" The Russian yelled, "Now!"

Tori sat down on the ground, wrapping her arms tight around her drawn up legs. She didn't know how she was going to explain this, especially since she never had any intentions of telling him in the first place. She just figured she'd best explain it the way she explained it to Bryan, only make it a little more personal this time. "You…remember when we first met? Well…when you first met my parents and you found out that I had been suffering with the brain tumor for a longer time than you thought?"

"Of course."

Tori shook her head quickly, her auburn bangs covering her face, "It's not true. I…had been suffering with the tumor for a bit more than that…and it wasn't just once but the tumor grew back about three times and I took the surgery every single time. After that I gave up…and I planned on not taking the surgery any more but…you changed my mind."

"So you don't want to take the surgery again but you should've told me!"

She was in tears by now, burying her face in her arms, "I was scared you'd try to change my mind again. Because I'm a stupid and unreliable girl! My…decisions waver to easily just because I'm in love."

"I _need_ you to take that surgery."

She shook her head hard, the back of her aching head sliding along the hard stone walls, "I can't do that...I can't…it hurts too much, its torture every time and I can't keep doing this every single time this tumor decides to grow back!"

"All I need is for you to do it _at least_ one more time."

She could hear him getting closer, she shook her head even harder, "I can't…it hurts too bad Kai! You don't get it!" her whole body shook heavily, sobs racking her skinny weak frame, "You know…why I won't do more than sleep in the same bed with you…why I won't even let you see any other part of me than what you already do? Because…I look terrible under all this…you'll take one look at me and be disgusted by me, I know it. It's the work of all the surgery, the medication, the loneliness…if I was going to die so soon…I didn't want to spend that last time with you hating me or disgusted by me…"

"How much longer do you have?" Kai sounded just a little bit more sympathetic this time round.

Tori sniffed, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket, "About a month, a little more, a little less; I didn't go to enough doctor's appointments to find out for sure."

"You need to go back to get that surgery done."

"You don't understand." Tori mumbled, shielding her head from the other.

"I understand enough to know that you planned on dying and not telling me a thing about!"

"I wanted to save us both the trouble. I thought that…if you thought I died of natural causes or I just didn't know about the tumor than it'd be easier for you to move on."

"It _wouldn't_ have been easier because I would've just blamed myself for not noticing the symptoms sooner!"

"I'm sorry, Kai." She buried her face even deeper between her legs and chest, covering the top of her head with her arms even tighter and almost suffocating herself in the small space, "I'm sorry."

"Are you going to change your mind and take the surgery?" She could hear him get off the bed.

"I don't want to."

"Then, I don't want to continue like this."

She looked up at him hurriedly, bewildered as he knelt down, catching her face lightly in his hands and pressing his cool ivory-like lips to her hot forehead. She brought her hands up to his hurriedly, holding them close to her as comfort, her tears leaking from her eyes stopping for just one brief moment when she shut them with pleasure. Time froze, and for a moment she wished that time wouldn't start up again.

Unfortunately for the both of them, it did and Kai walked out the door before they could say anything else to each other. Tori broke down, slamming her back against the wall, tears running down her cheeks too fast for her to even bother controlling them. Her slim body shook even more upon hearing the front door slamming shut. She fell forward, her forehead against the carpeted ground, holding the back of her head tight as she sobbed endlessly. Kai was really gone, he left her.

"Mistress…"

"Get the hell away from me!" Tori screamed at the top of her lungs. The bit-beast had seemingly done so, she was nowhere to be found and Tori didn't feel her close as she usually was. She wiped hard at her red eyes, staggering off the ground as best she could before running off down the hall and making two important phone calls in which she sobbed her way through both of. She kicked over the small mail-table she had in the hall by the door, tossing it to the ground and everything on it, including any small change from Kai's pocket when he got home and a bunch of keys. She scratched her foot against one of those as she stormed her way into the kitchen, she didn't care for the bleeding though, just letting the blood trail throughout the uncarpeted areas.

She threw every medicine bottle and box right out of the cupboard and onto the ground, looking for one dark blue box in particular. Her brain was pounding hard in her head, some relief when she came across the box she had been looking for. She picked up a glass of water, drinking down two of the large pills, refilling the glass and taking it and the box back to her bedroom as she was careful not to skid in her own blood. She sat down cross-legged on her bed, holding back more tears as she took the next two and lay back against the soft fluffy pillows. _She'd get up soon, but for now she was sick and tired._ She unknowingly fell asleep lightly against the pillows, unconsciously turning onto her side and curling up into a ball as she always did when sound asleep. She grabbed a pillow from beside her, Kai's pillow and holding it tight to her body, inhaling the deep beautiful and intoxicating scent that is…was her boyfriend.

'_Kai saw me as the stronger part of the relationship…he always thought that. He said breaking down is okay…I said it to him but never let it apply to myself. I shouldn't have broken down, if I hadn't and just dealt with everything like a stronger person than he'd still be here with me. He wouldn't have left. It's my fault. I lived my whole life without guilt…this is going to see me to my grave.' _

_**A/N: This is probably the chapter before the last, there's one more chapter and then it's over for this fic. So please, this is on the favorites list of at least fifteen people, yet I usually get about five reviews per chapter so please, for the last two chapters, tell me what you think. I really do hope I didn't screw up "Cats and Dogs"'s reputation by writing this. **_

_**Please review, let me know what you think of all this and don't worry yourselves with what happens next. I won't let you down…too much. Take care everyone.**_


	12. Ending It

_**Chapter 12**_

After walking around for a few hours, scaring off some countless random little children in the park the livid look on his face, Kai cooled off just a little bit and after a long and persistant argument with Dranzer he chose to take the long route home. The home he shared with Tori.

The walk home was long and painful. He couldn't believe that he'd broken up with her, or at least given her that impression. He didn't really…entirely feel that way. He didn't want to continue this way but he didn't want to leave her either. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to find when he got home; he was sure that it wasn't going to be something pleasant, Tori was probably a nervous wreck and he didn't know how he was going to restore the damage they'd caused for each other.

He opened the door quietly when he got there, eyes on the ground which then followed all the keys and coins that got caught under the door when he tried to open it a little further. He got in and shut it, his eyes following the trail of blood in the kitchen and seeing the pile of medication there on the ground which caused millions of thoughts to rush to his already aching head. "Tori?" He checked the living room in a hurry, then the bathroom, the spare bedroom and their…her bedroom. "Tori sweetie…" he ran over to her, kneeling on the ground and checking the box of pill beside her, "Tori, wake up." He shook her slightly, attempting to wake her and hoping that the pills weren't used for what he was thinking.

To his utter relief she opened her eyes and her body stretched out from it's rolled up form just slightly, "Kai…" Tears poured out of her eyes and her arms latched around his neck but he pushed her away slightly.

"How much of these did you take?" he held up the box from the nightstand.

"Just four." She buried her face into the pillow to wipe her tears off.

"And how many are you meant to take at a time?"

"Two usually but…"

"Tori!"

"You need to take four if you plan on taking the surgery…"

He felt like he'd gone deaf for a second, only being able to feel his heart beating fast in his chest, at first from fright, until it stopped at her words and started up again with the same speed, "What?"

"I called the hospital…they can fit me in for surgery late tomorrow night but I was…" He saw her raise a hand to her mouth, coughing hard against it until he rubbed her back to soothe her so that could continue, "meant to be there about half an hour ago. They offered to send an ambulance but I said I'd walk it 'cause I needed the fresh air." She placed both hands to grip her head, pushing her hair back out of her flushed face, "I'm so stupid I fell asleep."

Kai brushed the tears off her cheeks, smiling ever so slightly, "You're not stupid."

"Shit Kai." Tori mumbled, pushing past him and running out of the room.

He got up and followed her to the bathroom, watching her bent over the toilet, both hands against the wall as she began retching hard. He could very well guess the reasons for this reaction because it was the exact same way he felt when he had been suffering from his nightmares and unfortunately, there wasn't much he was able to do but stand by his beloved and help her recover. Entering the bathroom he placed a glass of water onto the ceramic contrivance above the sink and then stepped to the shivering figure who had gotten onto her knees on the floor, crouching down next to it and laying a hand onto the small back and stroking it soothingly, feeling the surges wrecking the fragile body.

How he wished he could take that hurt, that misery and suffering off the slender shoulders onto his own, endure Tori's pain instead of the younger for it certainly wouldn't hurt as much as being forced to simply stand by and watch the events taking their terrible effects on his girlfriend, offering all the support, warmth, care and protection he could come up with and help his beloved to cope. He found it unfair that she'd been suffering with these things for so long. He assumed to her dealing with the compulsive vomiting, stomach aches, migraines and all the rest by herself but especially a girl like her, as sweet and as innocent as her, needed some taking care of and he'd neglected to do that for her because he assumed that she could handle herself.

Her hair had begun to get in her way so he pulled it off her face and kept it behind her on her back, holding onto her arm gently as she moved forward quickly another time. For her breakfast had been rather sparse and lunch had clearly been skipped all together the only thing Tori could do after some moments was retch dryly, nothing left to spit out but still it was like her consciousness, her heart tried to vomit the very memories, every single one, out of her mind forever and even though not succeeding in that tried on and on and on, until she felt her chest and stomach hurting violently, forcing tears into her already-crying eyes. It was hard to even try and inhale sobbing breaths in between the fits of nausea so by the time it was finally over she was totally drained, reaching her badly trembling fingers out to flush the toilet.

He caught her hand in time though, moving it back down to her side and flushing the toilet himself. He picked her up off the ground, allowing her to rest against him and holding onto her waist as she cleaned her mouth and teeth at the sink. She then staggered right past him, pushing out of his hold, "Kai, don't be here out of guilt or pity."

"I'm not." He moved over to her and picked her up like he would a toddler, balancing her on his strong arm with his other arm around her waist and stroking her back. He took her to the kitchen and leant back against the counter and handing her a glass of water, at the moment forgetting about the one he'd brought her in the bathroom. Once she was done he walked back to the front door, careful not to step in the blood.

"Where are we going?" She asked sleepily, resting against his shoulder.

"To the hospital." Kai made it down the stairs in a hurry, considering he was still carrying her. He put her down on the ground at her insistence, "I'll come back for some of your things later."

Within the next hour things had slowed down. The whole day was a rushed pace, waking up, quick kisses between them, rushing to the airport with Bryan and Tala, coming back and having the heated argument with Tori, leaving and walking around for ages. Now he could look back and they seemed like things that happened a long time ago. Things were a little calmer. She was curled up in the hospital bed, one arm hanging off the edge of the bed as it had countless drips attached. She looked so weak and fragile to him, he knew she didn't want him to see her like that and he had never quite understood why she didn't want him visiting the first time around and now he understood; she was so ashamed about the way she looked when in this state, she wasn't her confident self and was scared that he'd leave her or be disgusted by her.

"So why'd you change your mind again?" he asked curiously, entwining his hand with hers.

"I didn't want to die spending my last month alone, no family, no boyfriend." She mumbled exhaustedly, "There's a chance that the surgery will kill me…it's why I didn't want it in the first place two years ago. At least if I die tomorrow night…well at least I can remember how nice you were about it, helping me out and bringing me here."

"You won't die. You're strong, I know you are. You'll pull through just like you have the other times."

He caught the strange look on her face, a confused look, just before it disappeared and she buried half her face in the pillow, "How can you have so much faith in the me? I'm as weak as they come…I can barely handle myself and…"

"You can't handle yourself? You're handling things very well considering everything. You went through a lot because you dealt with this for years…you're bound to feel like you're giving up eventually. You tried to be strong for as long as you could, now you're just tired of it."

"I wish I were as strong as you, Kai." He heard her mumbling softly.

He sighed and leant forward, "I'm not that strong…and you know as well as I do that the strength I actually have gets me in trouble." He saw her smile lightly at the way he said that, he was right after all. "This is just one of those things that you and I will argue about till we're both dead. You know how things are between us; sometimes there are things we just never come to a decent conclusion to, or we just never agree. This will be one of those things because who is stronger is undecided."

"Kai…I don't want you to see me till I recover from the surgery."

"That's not going to happen. I'm going to be here this time and you're not going to change my mind."

"I don't want you to be here if I survive the surgery."

Kai stood up and pulled the blankets over her a little more and tightening them so she wouldn't be able to move too much, "I'm going to be here, you're not going to manage talking me into not being here so save your strength." He pressed his cool lips to her forehead. He loved doing that, to any man it was the perfect expression of love and it always had been. It was a sign of affection when a girl was sick, when she was worried, when she was hurt, it was even a traditional thing to do after lovemaking in Japan. He loved how he could smell the beautiful scent of her hair and skin when he kissed her there, he loved how if he moved away fast enough he could see the red in her cheeks.

He sat back down in the chair by the bed, his grip on her hand tightening as a reminder that he wasn't going anywhere far. He could see her slowly going to sleep, she clearly didn't want to but she needed to.

_**--Two Days Later--**_

"So Kai, how is she?" Max asked seriously, moving closer to him on the front porch.

"Well she survived…which is a plus. She's weak right now, really tired. She's not allowed to have visitors just yet since she's only been out of surgery a few hours but they say she'll be okay."

"Tori's a strong girl, I knew she'd be okay." Tyson said hurriedly.

Kai could hear Ray settle down beside him, exhaling heavily, "You think they'll let us visit her later?"

He shook his head hurriedly, "Tori's not keen on even having me there either. She doesn't want to see anyone. I've already warned the nurse that I'll be there to see her later and that I will be there regardless of what Tori tells them but I guess now I'll see what happens."

"The worst is over Kai, just relax." Max whispered, almost ashamed that he was the one having to calm Kai down when it should've been Tori.

"I'm perfectly relaxed." Kai bit out angrily.

"Kai, we haven't seen you this stressed out since the time you set us all down with Tori to tell us about your nightmares and stuff." Ray, the usual voice of reason, pointed out.

"Yeah, and you were _really_ stressed out back then too." Tyson said, always pointing out the obvious.

"Thanks loads, Tyson. Remind me to never come to you with a problem."

"So if you go see her today, will you call us and tell us how she is and if she'll see us?" Max asked an obvious question, just to get Kai's mind off their loudmouth friend.

"Sure." Kai hurried off the porch, "I'm going for a short walk before I go see her."

"You want us to come with you?"

"No." Kai walked out the Dojo gate after that, leaving behind his concerned friends.

"Poor Kai, he's taking this hard." Ray sighed, sitting back down.

"Well yeah, his girlfriend would much rather die than keep dating him, or living with him for that matter." Tyson mumbled, gaining two deadly glares from the other two.

Max sighed a little and lay back on the wooden porch, "Clearly they didn't break up Tyson and if they did, then they both still love each other. We all know that the only person that could get Tori to change her mind about surgery was Kai and still is. Tori is the only person who could upset Kai this much, and she's the only person who can get him out of it too."

"I guess you're right."

Ray sat there, staring at his two friends for a few moments while thinking hard for something sensible and comforting to come to mind. Nothing came though. "I just hope Tori's okay. Kai is worried and hurt by all this but…he understands which makes it easier on the both of them but Tori…she's been doing this countless times and it's not just bad for her health…what about her self-esteem?"

"We'll make her feel better once we see her. I'm sure she could do with some cheering up…"

"She needs time…they both need time to sort things out. We need to give them some space, but we need to try to help the both of them out."

"Definitely."

_**--An Hour Later- With Kai--**_

Kai stepped in front of the door to Tori's room, just as a nurse stepped up beside him. "How is she?"

"Recovering well, as expected."

He peeked in through the small window of the door, seeing the lump under the sheets, "Can I see her?"

The nurse bit the inside of her cheek clearly, nodding slightly, "You can but…approach with caution, she's not been feeling too well today, post-surgery nausea mostly so she hasn't been in the best of moods."

"The 'can I see her?' answer gave me more than the 'how is she?' answer did." Kai mumbled a little irritably, "I can handle the mood swings, if she isn't too well I'll try not to be too long either." He stepped inside, shutting the door tight behind him, "Tori?" he saw the body beneath the sheets curl up even tighter, the sheets stretching further as she tugged them more over her head with her grip on them strengthening. He walked up beside her bed, turning her over onto her back through the sheets, "Come on sweetie, let go." He tugged a little at the sheets, hoping she'd stop holding on so stiffly.

"Kai, go away!"

"I'm not going anywhere, so you can either come out from under the covers by yourself or I can drag you out. It really is your choice."

"Leave me alone!"

Kai pulled an arm around her back in between the thick sheets and mattress, bringing her into a seated position and tugging the blankets off. She continued to kick, scream and sometimes scratch, curling up in her seated position and shielding her injured head from him. He didn't ever think that her confidence was ever this low.

Right now he didn't care. He just pulled his arms around her protectively and holding her cold form to his warmer body. She sobbed into his clothing, her arms still held over her head. He pushed one of them aside, kissing the top of her bandaged head, careful not to press down too hard.

"I told you not to see me." Tori murmured brokenly.

Kai made her lie down again, placing the covers back over her and holding them hard in place by her sides so she wouldn't go back under them, "Look at me."

"No."

"Please? Just look at me."

Tori pried her arms off, tucking them beneath the covers where she clutched at the mattress, bit hard on her lip that had begun to bleed from the pressure and brushed her damp cheeks against the pillow. "What do you want?" she mumbled.

"To see that pretty face of yours." As corny as that sounded it made her smile a little, he kissed her cheek lightly before brushing the tears off with his thumb, still keeping his hand on the sheets, "How are you feeling?"

"How does it look like I'm feeling?!" Her remark was cruel and bitter-sounding, and he looked disappointed, she relaxed a little and shook her head as a gesture that she didn't mean to sound so rude. "I'm sorry…Just a little stressed out…that's all it is. I didn't plan on having the surgery…I wasn't emotionally prepared for it."

"Do you want me to bring you something?" He wanted to be as helpful as he could; she did all this against her will, she did it all for him and now he just wanted to help her through it and not make her feel like she'd made another mistake. He'd never felt like he had to step up more than he did now.

"I don't know." She smiled a little when he raised her eyebrow at her words, her cheeks turned red quickly, "I think I got…"

Kai choked on his breath a second, turning red in the face too but smiling softly and nodding, "I'll get your stuff from home." It's not like her period had never been mentioned between them, but she liked to keep Kai out of it, to save him from feeling more like a husband than a boyfriend. He gave her a peck on the lips, being unsure of what else he could tell her.

Tori pushed Kai's hand off, moving to the furthest side of the bed, resting against the cold bars a little and patting the newly-found space beside her, "Want to keep me company for a while?"

Kai got up onto the bed and pulled the covers over the both of them, pulling her body close to his to rest against his chest for a while. He provided her freezing cold body enough warmth for a while, enough that after some time she fell asleep but kept forcing herself awake. "You can get some sleep if you want to."

"No. I want to stay awake for a while. They'll just wake me up in two hours anyway."

"How come?"

Tori shrugged and tugged the covers up a little more when a chill ran over her, "I don't know…maybe they want to make sure I haven't died in my sleep."

He pulled his arms around her even tighter, surprising her at first but she found comfort in it anyway. "I'm sorry for yelling so much last time. I've always been used to yelling, at the team, at friends, at family, at anyone and there was no one that could really stop me. I know you hate it when I yell, I know I scare you and I _do_ feel bad that I yelled so much last time."

Tori sighed and curled up a little bit more, "Kai when I met up with the lot of you…what? About three years ago now. I didn't meet up with you to change you, it was so that I could make friends. Did you know I never had real friends? I moved around far too much for that. Except for those few years in America, and all the girls my age there were all of those perfect blonde rich girls so I didn't make friends there either. So I wanted to be your friend, Mr. Dickinson said a lot of great things about you and the others and…I never met people as great as what he said so I wanted to meet you." She had tears going down from her eyes so fast at the memories, but she smiled a little and then, "He said _you_ were a lot of trouble though and that regardless of how great you were I'd never get through to you no matter how long I lived."

Kai smirked, "And you, being the stubborn person you were and still are, wanted to prove him wrong."

"Yeah, and I got through to you…sort of. I swear Kai, back then I didn't plan on being around so long, I just wanted to meet you and all the others. And then I got really attached and none of you wanted me to die…I didn't expect any of you to find out I was ill but you found out and then I couldn't lie about it. After all this time it seems like I was trying to change you…and then when it settled in that I was sick again, I just thought more of myself than anyone else, it seems that way but its not the case. I thought of you, I thought that it looked like I was trying to change you and I didn't want that, and I was thinking that you…you deserved better than what you got with me." She sat up, pulling her legs to her chest and keeping her back to him. "You needed someone who didn't nag you as much as I did, you deserved someone prettier, someone smarter, someone more worthy. You changed a lot of your lifestyle for me so that you could live with me, so you could look out for me…"

"And _you_ gave up freedom for _me_." Kai sat up just like she was, sitting beside her so that he could look at her broken face properly, "You hated your life and probably still do, you hate your skin, you hate a lot of it and just to make me happy you gave up your freedom, not just once, but twice."

"I love my life Kai, really I do. I used to be really happy. When I was younger, just waking up early one morning on a train, on a bus, in a car, on a plane and always somewhere beautiful regardless of the sick and dying people there were all around me, I could still find the beauty in it. Then I got sick again and I came here so that I could spend my last few months in one place and doing regular things, meeting friends, going to school, going to work. And then meeting you guys I felt even better…you thought you made my life miserable because of how much I worried about you and tried to care for you but…for once I had some sort of purpose; going around villages and homes where sick people stayed, not being able to help, kind of makes you feel helpless. So I stuck around and took the surgery, but it never dawned on me how long it'd be till you got fed up of me."

"And I never did get fed up of you and I just thought that…the only reason you wanted to die this time was because you didn't want to be around me."

Tori laughed, making a displeased sound, "You wish. I just thought you needed someone better than me and the best way to get out of it was this way but then you took it hard and…"

He'd had enough, he put up a silencing hand, at which she looked at him with curious teary eyes as he was ready to reply to them, "I…I went to an all-boy's prep school and…one forest hike away, there was an all-girls school. Now sometime or another, every student climbed the walls and left the schools to go see each other. I could've had any girl in that school if I wanted to, they were all about my age, rich, beautiful. But I didn't go after any of them."

"Why not?" She picked up a tissue from the nightstand, wiping at her eyes hard and waiting for him to continue.

"Because they were all rich, shallow, self-obsessed, uninteresting, honestly less useful than a sack of vegetables, incompetent, boring, cheaters, liars and please, don't make me continue because I could go all night at this rate. I mean…yes they were from my whole family's social circle, and yes there were some that were quite beautiful but what does that have to do with anything? I would much rather be with you, than any of those girls."

"I still don't follow."

Kai sighed at her, shaking his head a little bit at the idea that he had to explain himself a lot deeper than that. He wasn't one to speak about how much he liked her and what he liked about her, this was new to him, they'd never spoken like this before. They'd had deep conversations before but…none like this. "I like you a lot and I like you as the person you are and I wouldn't want to change anything. You're kind and sweet…you were never all that quick to judge but you always spoke your mind, no matter how much you disagreed. You're intelligent but…you still don't let that get in the way of some things, you just have fun with it. You're childish but you're mature when you need to be. I love the fact that you can just make someone feel comfortable…you can make them feel like what other people think doesn't matter or it's just unimportant and they can just be themselves and just take things easy for once in their lives."

"But…"

"No. You can't…put yourself down like this. You're…different from everyone else and that's one of the many things that just makes me adore you the way I do. You're not one of those girl's who are perfect and I'm thankful for that, really I am because otherwise it'd be me that would feel completely insufficient. I hope that in some time you can understand just how important you are and not just to me, but to a lot of people."

Tori lay back down, patting the fluffy pillow under her head, "If a prettier girl came along and showed interest in you and…she had all the good qualities you find in me and you find them in her too, would you go with her instead?"

"That… just goes against everything I've _just_ said." Kai argued quietly, exhaling a whole wind of frustration at what he was dealing with, "I am happy with you, I have no regrets about the relationship, I'm never disappointed and what part of 'I love you' do you not understand?"

"I guess I'm just really paranoid."

Kai smiled at that but turned around and looked at her since she couldn't have seen it at first. "Your paranoia is good sometimes…it makes you who you are, doesn't it?" he lay back down beside her, pulling her lithe body slightly over his so her head would rest on him again. "And you know that sometimes I get as paranoid as you do…I'm like this too but then we just do stuff together and I feel different, it changes my mind."

Tori liked hearing Kai's heartbeat against her ear, smiling contently at the warmth around her again.

"One of the first things you taught me was…to accept myself as I am, not to let the things that happen to me bring me down and stop me from being the person that I am. So take your own advice."

Tori hummed appreciatively, both at his helpful advice and at the strong fingers that were lightly massaging her shoulders. "Thank you."

"For what?"

Tori lifted her head a little, resting her chin on his chest so she could look at him properly, "For making me feel better, of course and talking like that…I'll bet you found it difficult." She whispered sleepily.

"Isn't that what a good boyfriend would do? Make his girlfriend feel better?"

"So everything's okay between us?"

Kai smirked, "Of course it is." He inhaled deeply, "What I said last time, that was me just getting…" he couldn't find the right word, at the risk of using the word he disliked.

"Scared?" Tori asked with a weak smile.

Kai laughed at the adorable look on her face and the way she said that, "Yes…_that_." Tori giggled and moved under the sheets a little more, and hiding her face from Kai again. "What's wrong?"

"Are you mad that I won't…?"

The Russian lifted his head hurriedly, careful not too move too much, otherwise he'd hurt her fragile skull, "Have I ever looked like I was mad about that? I can wait a long time…it's not something that bothers me and if it were to happen and you felt rushed…then it would've just been a waste to wait. If I wait, and we do it when you're ready then I'm happy, but don't force yourself." He sat up slowly and slid out of the bed, "Now…stop worrying and concentrate on getting better. I'm going to go and tell the others that you're alright, even Bryan was a little worried when I spoke to him yesterday."

"Oh God…Bryan." Tori put a hand to her head, remembering how she'd called on his cell phone and yelled at him for leaving Kai that letter. She seemingly snapped out of it at Kai's quiet laughter, "What's so funny? I yelled at him pretty badly!"

"He said it's okay…he said he dated long enough to handle a girl yelling at him through tears so he said he understands and…he's sorry for betraying you and that he should've told you that he planned on telling me. He says he didn't even know that he was going to tell me…which makes me a little mad at him but I guess I can be just as understanding."

"Tell him I'm sorry anyway! And tell the team I said hello, okay?!"

Kai laughed, backing up towards the door, "Sure I will. Just rest."

"Kai…wait! Kai, please."

Kai sighed and walked back to her, smiling down slightly, "What is it?"

Tori smiled widely back up at him, "I love you." She murmured, reaching her arms up to him like a child wanting the adult to come down next to her.

Their lips met just momentarily, Kai tracing a few more stray kisses at the corner of her mouth and then on her jaw line. "I love you too." He kissed her forehead and then walked out of the room quick-paced so that she wouldn't call him back again any time soon. He made his way to the Dojo, that being the mid point between the apartment and the hospital. The team were sitting outside but he just intended on walking inside.

"Hey Kai."

"I'm going to lie down for a bit, if I fall asleep, wake me in an hour?"

The three all looked at each other, getting up and following the boy inside and to the living room, finding him lying down already. "What happened, Kai?" Max asked, concern dripping from his words.

"Did something bad happen to Tori?"

"What? No…no she's fine." Kai turned to lie on his stomach, turning his head to the side to face them but keeping his eyes shut tight.

"So what happened?"

Kai turned over on the uncomfortable sofa again, onto his side facing the back of the sofa, "We talked…like a decent couple and it took a lot out of me. I just want to relax for a while…I need to go back home and get some more stuff for her and then go back."

"You're really drained, Kai. Why don't we go and take Tori her stuff instead?"

"She doesn't want to see anyone else for now." It wasn't a complete lie; she had barely wanted to see him and she was going to be no more pleased about the others in any case. "Just give me half an hour." He opened his marble eyes and staring into the material, waiting anxiously for the others to leave.

"Sure."

He heard the feet shuffling against the wooden floors, disappearing back outside. He exhaled quietly, he really didn't want to go to sleep just yet. He didn't want to sleep at all. Maybe he had gotten too accustomed to sleeping next to Tori, but for the past few days he hadn't slept so well. It could've just been the panic of Tori's surgery too that unsettled him but he still hadn't managed to sleep, and ranting off his feelings to prove his love for his girlfriend hadn't helped his exhaustion much.

Maybe he just liked the idea of having someone next to him that'd protect him if he had ever really needed it. It was just that…one night, just more than a year ago. Kai's nightmares had gotten terrible for a while but she was always there for him in those dark long nights that felt painfully endless. He loved her soft whispers at that time of night.

_**--Flashback--**_

"_Kai-kun, hey. Wake up." She urged more firmly, raising her voice and shaking him a bit more forcefully._

"Wake up, sweetie." She was unbelievably relieved as the eyelids finally fluttered open revealing scared, shimmering crimson orbs which first looked at her like the boy had troubles recognizing where he was and who was here with him in the room. He sobbed quietly and suddenly, uncontrollably with his hands to his face, trying to get his senses back and shake off the horror of the nightmare.

"Shh. It's okay. It was just a nightmare." Speaking in a gentle, calm voice Tori's hand moved up swiftly, cupping the cold cheek of the blader and stroking her thumb over the soft skin soothingly, feeling Kai lean into the touch desperately, trustingly.

He imagined how he looked so fragile and vulnerable, trembling beneath the vocalist's long fingers with the tears glistening in the moonlight on his skin, wide eyes still wearing the fright and anxiety in them. The image made Tori feel nothing more than the need to comfort and calm this frail being and try and take the horror plaguing him away from his mind and heart.

"It's alright now, Kai-kun." He remembered her repeating tenderly, bending down and gazing into those still fear-tainted eyes and feeling the tingling warmth of the other's lips against her own. "I'm here." She breathed out reassuringly before closing the distance and gently sealing those sweet lips in a soft kiss.

'I'm here,' it echoed in Kai's head before he felt the plump, warm lips of the other touch his own, shaking him awake from the pain-tainted haze his nightmare had put him into. Suddenly he was so very aware of Tori's presence so close, staring up into the calm eyes of the young girl, and easily recognizing the familiar flicker of concern in them. She made him feel comfortable at least, she put his mind at ease for a while. 

_**--End Flashback--**_

It was those small things that he loved. No one had ever done that for him; no mother, no father, no sibling, no grandparent. No one had that much patience, so he kept telling himself. He remembered how that night ended…he had been stupid enough to walk away. It wasn't because he didn't want her help but he just felt weak for allowing himself to rely on her like that.

It didn't matter though. That was the only part of the memory he really needed to remember; the nightmare being painful, waking up to her gentle but wakening hold, her sweet quiet whispers, shushing sounds in his ear, hot breath against his skin, soft kisses on his mouth…that was all he needed to remember. He didn't want or need to remember the foolishness of his actions after that.

He couldn't bring himself to actually fall asleep though. He just lay there, his eyes closed, his breathing calm and even, exhausted but sleep still not taking him over. He assumed he should just get up and go home to get Tori her things, but he couldn't bring his aching and tired body to move just yet. It wasn't that he didn't have the strength, he just couldn't be bothered for the time being.

He just wanted to lie there. He wanted to think about what life would've been like if he hadn't met Tori when he did. Not because they would be pleasant memories, but thoughts like that always reminded him of the good that he had in his life now.

He couldn't quite understand what would've happened to him back then if they hadn't met. He assumed that if he were still alive, he'd still be not eating or sleeping properly till this day. And if he were dead, he would've either killed himself from the nightmares, even though he never deemed himself the suicidal type, or would've died from starvation. Another would've been that the team would've killed him if they found out about what was happening or what he was doing to himself, but he preferred to keep that possibility off his mind.

After about three quarters of an hour just lying there he began nagging at himself to get up. It seemed to take a lot more than that though, he began just thinking about how frustrated, bored and depressed Tori must be sitting in the hospital room all by herself. That was the most motivation he needed to get himself off the sofa, getting up and going to the apartment to get some more of Tori's things, trying to shake off the nervousness of having to pick through her private things and her underwear drawer.

He took the stairs up to her level, hoping that the longer walk would wake him up a little bit more but didn't like what he saw for the most part and wished he took the lift. He was about to pull the door open, instead it swung open in front of him, thankful his reaction time wasn't terrible due to the lack of sleep and was able to catch the door before it hit him. "Sorry." He eyed the nurse in front of him for a second. The same nurse from earlier, he recognized after another moment. "How is she doing?" he asked, stopping her from passing by him by placing a hand on her arm quickly.

"She's recovering well. She's been through these procedures before, she knows what goes on and things seem to be getting better." She gave him a sweet honest smile, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder, "Are you alright? You look a little faint."

Kai shook his head a little, "It's nothing. Dead body on the way down to the morgue threw me off." He smiled just a little bit to reassure her that he was fine and he moved to walk past her.

"Oh she has a visitor at the moment, in case you'd rather wait."

"A visitor?" He couldn't quite grasp the idea that she let someone else into the room.

The nurse turned back to him, nodding, "A friend of hers from the children's ward." She walked off after that, leaving Kai to stand there and revel in the confusion till he opened the door. He walked inside and saw Tori sitting up in bed, a sweet little girl with the same head-bandaging as his girlfriend sitting down in a wheelchair just beside the bed.

He walked up to it anyway, placing the bag on the ground beside the bed, "I got your stuff." He kissed her on the top of her head gently, sitting down in the chair.

"Thanks sweetie." Tori leaning forward and kissing him lightly. She felt the girl beside her tap her leg lightly, turning to her and watching her go through short hand movements, pointing at Kai quickly. "Ah, Kai this is Hamako." She turned back to the girl, going through some hesitant hand movements of her own before turning to Kai's blank face, not knowing of the big of nostalgia passing through him, and leaning a little closer and whispering, "She suffers from brain tumors too, not as recurring as mine but she's had it once before. She's deaf as a result of it, and can't speak much either."

Kai bit his lip a little, resting both arms on the bed and going through some more hesitant hand motions than his girlfriend had done, working them out in his head as he went through them. The introduction he offered caused the tiny girl to giggle sweetly, nodding her head at him slightly. He felt Tori's smirking and her bright eyes on him and turned to her, "What?"

"I didn't know you knew sign language."

"My grandmother was deaf…my mother too. Apparently every first born female in my family was deaf. And it's just basic alphabet that I know…aside from the Russian stuff at least." He picked up a pillow from a nearby vacant bed, putting it on the side of Tori's bed and resting his arms and head there.

Hamako tapped Tori's thigh lightly again, silently asking the auburn-haired female how he knew sign language, apparently not being able to keep up with reading Kai's fast-paced lips. Tori explained, careful not to stir Kai from beside her. Kai was seemingly thankful that their way of communicating was silent; it gave him the opportunity to rest for a few minutes. He was sure he fell asleep for at least fifteen minutes, but being able to know so much of what was around him and being uncomfortable in a place like a hospital, sleep wasn't all that possible.

He lifted his head when he felt the bed moving slightly, Tori was apparently getting back under the covers after she'd changed from the hospital gown and into her pale blue pajamas he'd got for her from home the other day. "Hey, go back to sleep." She murmured, guiding his head back down onto the pillow.

"Stop." Kai mumbled quickly, a growl accompanying it at the back of his throat.

He heard her exhale softly, "This is another reason why I didn't want you here."

"Why?"

"Because you're a damn good person, and you'd stay by my bedside till you were emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted."

"I'm not that tired."

"Yes you are." She forced him back down into the chair as he'd moved to get up, dragging the chair a little closer to her and looking at him sternly, some comfort lying beneath the layers of her bright brown eyes, "Let's try this again." She put his mature face in her hands, crushing Kai's lips with her own and waiting till the both of them couldn't breathe because of the kiss that got deeper and deeper. She pulled away, her thumb stroking the soft tired features of his face, "How are you?" she asked, the very moment she could breathe well again.

"Not so great," he murmured in a breathless tone, "But I've got a handle on myself."

"I should've called security and not let you see me…this is too much for you at once."

"No…really, I'm fine. I'm just sorry that I can't be more useful."

Tori put a great amount of pressure on Kai's forearms, such a great amount that Kai almost found it painful. "You have been _very_ useful…but you can't handle all this pressure. You have a lot on your mind."

"As do you!" Kai shook his head and placed it down firmly onto the pillow for a moment before lifting it again, "I want you to be okay when this is all over, I want you to not be stressed out and the more I think that the more I try to make things better the more I fail at it."

"That's not true at all."

"Not all the time at least."

"Will you go home and get some sleep? At least for a few hours?"

"I tried and I couldn't sleep. If you don't believe me then ask the team, I was tossing on that sofa for a whole hour."

Tori kicked the sheets off and pulled her body closer to him, kissing the top of his head as she brushed the hair away from his skin, "I believe you." She massaged his back gently, palms digging deep into the tense muscles. He mumbled something appreciatively, and she moved away and pressing herself to the other side of the bed, "Get up here." She patted the empty space beside her.

"I'm fine here."

"You're going to hurt your back. Come and lie down here." She took a quick peek at his face when he didn't move, finding him already fast asleep on his strong arms. She smiled at that sweet look, she loved being able to see it. She moved back to lie in the middle of the bed, seeing no use in waking him back up. She picked a blanket off from the foot of her bed and placed it over his shoulders, laying back down on her side and watching him peacefully.

_**--Four Days Later--**_

Kai knelt down in front of her watching her supposedly asleep on the sofa. Her eyes flutter open slowly, "I'm not asleep." Kai's head rests on his arm, he let his hand slide up her shirt onto her slender aching stomach. She looked up at him and smiled softly as he rubbed the skin with care.

"Will you get me a popsicle?" she asked quietly with a pout, everything back to normal.

"Sure, what flavor?"

She looked at the ceiling, twisting her mouth while thinking, "Purple…Wait, no, green."

"Green?" He asked to make sure as he stood up.

Going in the kitchen Kai thought about the past few days and how things had gone. Tori stayed either at the hospital or in the apartment while Kai went to practice. She had begun taking the popsicles with her medication, the medication hurt her stomach a lot and the cold popsicles made her a little better. He smirked, opening the fridge; she's such a child asking for a green flavored popsicle, considering of what he knew 'green' wasn't a flavor.

He went back into the other room and handed her the popsicle. She opens it up speedily and cutely, like an excited child ripping open the wrapping on a present, and it's one of the double popsicles you break apart. So she broke it apart and handed Kai the other half. He sat on the sofa with her to eat. She had her legs bent, so that he could have room to sit close by, and her shirt pushed up just slightly. He went to touch her stomach lightly.

"Don't," she whines, pulling her legs closed and closer to her chest.

She moved to stand up but Kai put a hand on her leg, "Don't get up. What do you need?" he really didn't want her moving about so soon.

"Ice for my stomach…but I can get it you know?"

Kai went to the kitchen quickly, tossing the finished popsicle in the bin and going back to the living room with ice wrapped up in a clean dishcloth. He sat down beside her, lifting her clothing and carefully placing it on the bare skin. He saw her wince hard at the cold, giving her a moment before pressing it down.

"You don't need to keep doing this for me, Kai."

"Doing what?"

"Taking care of me…I know that I've been sick for a long time and now you know it too, but you know as well as I do that I can take care of myself quite well, I did it last time too."

"Last time you were in the hospital for two weeks…this time it wasn't even for a week. Last time you had been in hospital a long time after your surgery so you had them to take care of you…"

Tori sat up, pressing the cold material to her stomach, putting her other hand to the back of Kai's head, "I want to thank you for being so great to me…you were always great with me, looking after me when I needed it and it seems like lately I needed it most so thank you," she gripped at his hair a little more, "Now lay off, will you? I'm getting more exhausted by watching you do all the work, than me doing the work myself."

The Russian smirked and pulled the girl against him, "Do you get this exhausted when you're looking after me?"

"No…but I guess I enjoy it, and I like helping out. Kai you've got to understand that because I was sick, I could never make many definite plans, I couldn't pick up too many hobbies, couldn't get a job I could keep because I'd had to quit when I became too weak, I couldn't even stay in school for long. So it was good to have something to do…something to help out with. I told you, you're the reason I live and I really mean that."

Kai leaned forward and placed his lips over hers for a second, "I think that…the best thing I can tell you to that is thank you, and I love you."

He kept his forehead close to hers, his lips still brushing over her own sweetly. She loved this closeness, she could just feel his breath against her skin, the scent of him, the heat of his skin radiating from him. "That's all I need you to say." She pressed her lips back to his, wrapping her arms around him when he actually kissed her back with as much passion as she was hoping for. She was dying to feel this closeness again since for the past few days, the emotional closeness had gotten stronger but in a way she was craving the physical closeness too. She felt the kisses going lower, along her bony jaw line and then over her neck and collarbone, moving from one side of her ear and to the other. "Kai…your mouth is cold." She murmured against his ear, breathing deep. He seemingly thought that it was just his mouth cold from the popsicle and would warm up eventually. He continued to kiss her softly, for a while ignoring her quiet and random murmurs of it being so cold.

He pulled away after another moment, taking her form in properly. She was holding onto her own arms hard, her shoulders shaking and her face starting to pale. He held onto her shoulders, still holding her like he would a fragile doll, "You're freezing." He confirmed softly.

She breathed hard another time, her forehead colliding fast with Kai's muscled chest as she fell against him, feeling her body trembling beneath his strong arms. She felt him brushing his hands against her skin in attempt to warm her up, his other arm dragging blankets over her. Things went black after that.

_**--A Month Later--**_

Kai tossed a bunch of bags in front of the door, sometimes sliding large bags across the floor, all the way from the bedroom door to the front door and silently hoping that the friction didn't start a fire. Tori was half an hour later, and now so was he and she was probably going to throw a fit when she got home and saw all the things by the bags of clothing by the front door.

He'd spoken to the team the other day. He asked them if they could take Tori out for the day and keep her away from home till six in the evening. He'd said six because it'd take half an hour to explain everything, and then half an hour to get to the first destination. Now it was six thirty, Tori was late and he quietly cursed them for not knowing how to read a watch properly. Just as he'd tossed the last bag to the door he went to the living room to look out off the balcony if the taxi had arrived, it hadn't, just yet.

Tori arrived, he heard the keys in the lock in the door. She always took an extra few seconds to find the lock, her hands had been never being able to find the lock from impatience. He opened the door quickly and pulled her inside and just as he'd expected, she looked down at the load of bags and fear washed over her whole form. "Kai…" she looked up at him hurriedly, "Where are you going?"

He didn't want her to be scared, this was the complete opposite to what he wanted her to be feeling. He wanted her to be happy, excited, not frightened. He gave her a peck on the lips, holding tight on the small of her back, "Relax…it's nothing like what you're thinking."

"Then what is it?"

"Long story. Why weren't you here half an hour ago?"

"We went for a walk, got really far away and then they wanted to get back quickly but I didn't see the need to rush. Kai, what's going on?"

Kai glanced at his watch, lying back against the wall; he had a good five minutes. "You remember we went out about three months ago and you saw a painting in that antique store of that lodge in the forest?"

"Perfectly. I said it was probably like paradise there, what's that got to do with it?"

"I found the place. The guy rents that place out every year when he goes to visit his daughter in Shikoku so there's six weeks till the tournament and for the next month he is not going to be there and I rented the place out for the next three weeks."

Tori blinked, shaking her head and looking at him shockingly, "Wait…what?"

"Which part of this is unclear?"

"No…I mean…why are you doing this? It's not that I'm not happy…"

"I figured you needed to relax, I wanted to take you away from the stress for a while, away from the city, away from the team."

Tori pressed forward slowly, holding onto his hands tight as she looked around at everything ready by the door, "You really planned all this out didn't you?"

Kai breathed a sigh of relief, lying back a little more against the wall and pulling Tori with him, "Down to the last second and then I fell asleep on the sofa for about fifteen minutes which threw me off but otherwise, yes, everything's planned. One fifteen minute taxi drive, then one forty minute flight, the rest by car. Now if you're not up to going then that's fine."

He ran his fingers through that bright auburn hair, which to this day still contrasted heavily with his pale white hands. He loved the way she looked so close to him, they loved the fact that while being so different, they understood each other. With her own fingers in his hair and then on his tense shoulders, she leaned closer and kissed him softly, yet still passionately enough that he was able to understand what she meant.

'_Kai…if it ever happened that I died while in your arms, then I'd say I died a very happy person. I didn't expect to live as long as I did, and in the end I'm glad that the reason I lived was for you. I hope you understand the love I have for you. It has been a pleasure and an honor knowing you. I love you with all my heart. Let's be together for a lot longer, shall we? What I can never tell you in words, I will tell you in actions, and regardless of our differences, we will still understand. I know you love me like I love you…please don't feel the need to make yourself different for me. I love you for who you are. Sometimes you think that you need to be perfect, that you cannot make mistakes. At these times you put so much pressure on yourself I wish that you would realize that you are a human being- like everyone else…You are capable of reaching great potential but not capable of being perfect. So please, just do your best and realize that this is enough. Don't compare yourself to anyone. Be happy to be the wonderful, unique, very special person that I know for a fact you are.' _

'_I can barely tell you of all the wishes I have for you…There are so many of them and I want them all to come true. Please remain self-reliant like you've always been, but please remember that you will never be alone. Please never lose your childlike wonder, your delight and appreciation in interesting things. So many treasures await you in your long future…and I know it'll be long because you'll live as long as I'm with you, and I'm not letting go. Maybe I can't always tell you I love you, but I'll always let you know it. Being blessed with you, has been mine.' _

Denzelle sat outside on the balcony, staring out at the sunset over the beautiful Japanese city. Three years into their relationship and they found their happiness and she enjoyed watching it grow into the relationship it is now. It proved to even the most stubborn people, that love is possible for everyone, that love can be found in anyone, and that everyone deserves to be loved. This thought in mind, she wondered back, _'Ashley Rice once said- "Be interested in others and what they might teach you. But do not look for yourself in the faces of others. Do not look for who you are in other people's approval. Believe in yourself. Follow your heart and your dreams. You- like everyone else- will make mistakes. But so long as you are true to the strength within your own heart…you can never go wrong."'_

_**A/N: And it's over my dear readers! This is the saddest yet happiest ending I've ever written. It was a happy ending for them, but sad for me to write it to the very end. I honestly would've had this up sooner if it weren't for the fact that I were bawling for most of it.**_

_**I think what I wanted to prove with the last two chapters is that, opposite-attract relationships are possible, they're sometimes even the strongest, but like everyone else, they have their troubles, personally and in the relationship. This was to show that this wasn't one of those couples that always lived happily ever after, this was to show people that you can still have your happy story, but there'll always be trouble in there and the fact that you get through it together, just makes it all worth it in the end. **_

…_**Says the girl who hasn't dated within the past year but anyways. I really do hope you all enjoyed this and I hope that everyone just takes a few minutes of their time to review it because I really did put a lot of work into this whole story. I'm happy that a lot of people reviewed last chapter upon my request (past chapters was getting about four or five reviews per chapter, chapter 11 got about eleven reviews) I'm very thankful for everyone who reviewed, and I'm thankful for everyone's continuous support of my writing, it has been really great, thank you. Also, I'm glad I was told that I didn't ruin the reputation of "Cats and Dogs"**_

_**As a quick note, a friend of mine asked if I was going to write the chapters of them at the lodge after this chapter. My answer is a no, for the simple reason that I planned on them finally having sex sometime in those three weeks and I find that to possibly be too explicit to write for this story, even if I made it a side shot or something. Really though, what happens in those three weeks is completely up to your imagination, another reason why I left it a mystery. The future of this couple, really rests in your imagination. **_

_**One hell of an author's note, forgive me but I thought my thanks to you all was long over due. Thank you all, once again, and I hope you enjoy any of my future writings. Keep safe everyone!**_


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